To Save a Story
by Portraits of others
Summary: Dying and getting thrown into another world can be really liberating, especially if it's the world of Naruto. Just imagine the possibilities, with the future knowledge you would have to boot, they are truly endless. Or so you thought. A story in which our OC has to fix the Naruto timeline and survive one of the deadliest destinies of the Narutoverse. OC SI
1. Chapter 1

_**Summary:**_ _Dying and getting thrown into another world can be really liberating, especially if it's the world of Naruto. Just imagine the possibilities, with the future knowledge you would have to boot, they are truly endless. Or so you thought. A story in which our OC has to fix the Naruto timeline but ends up becoming a little too preoccupied trying to survive one of the deadliest destinies in the Naruto world._

 _ **Disclaimer:**_ _I do not own Naruto._

 _ **Warning:**_ _Rated T for violence, language, and suggestive adult themes_ _._

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To Save a Story

by Portraits of Others

 **Chapter 1**

"What time is it, Haru?"

"We only have about twenty more minutes until geography class, if that's what you're asking," I answered knowingly. I had never met anyone that loathes academics as much as Marco. Not that I was a huge fan, mind you. But it has never been that difficult, so as long as I didn't have to put too much of my time into it I didn't mind it. We were still in our second year of high school, and I had promised myself to really care about school when we were in our last year, so I had time to not care that much for a little less than a year at least.

We were eating our lunches in our homeroom with a few other friends. Not usual for us, but it was raining like hell outside. It was a Tuesday if I'm not mistaken. A normal Tuesday, one of many I had with my friends at my former school.

I died that Tuesday.

It was the stupidest death too. "I'm going to perform a magic trick for you lads," Ken, another of our friends, announced. "You all seem a little too down." He had always had a flair for the theatrical, so I wasn't alarmed when he said that. I was too calloused to his antics at that point.

Ken stuck a pencil in the table and proclaimed, "I'm going to make this pencil disappear." Now, I knew that line. And it vaguely tickled the 'Of fuck!' alarms in my brain but I was so used to ignoring him when he went all diva that I continued to look at my phone. He slowly circled the desk and approached me from behind. I like to think that he indeed had a plan to not actually kill me: taking the pencil out of the way on time; shoving my head down just beside the pencil; anything. I have no idea though because the last thing I remember was him saying "TA DA!" in a playful voice and then… nothing.

Not nothing, really. I was super pissed, so I knew it wasn't t nothing. It couldn't be since I had feelings, annoying though they were. But who wouldn't be raging if your friend 'joker-ed' you as a prank and ended up actually killing you. Kudos to him though, it must have looked just like the movie scene.

So there I was. Floating in darkness. I have no idea how long I was there for. It didn't feel like a long time but the concept of time seemed so distant in that place that it could have been a second, five minutes, 10 years. Honestly, I have no clue. I was very surprised, then, when I started feeling something tug on me. I didn't have a body to be tugged, so I can only imagine it was my consciousness or my mind that was being sucked into some sort of void.

I know for a fact that people would never believe me if they knew how reincarnation works. Not the whole being in a black endless space with no notion of time. That seems pretty standard. But the sound it made when I was dumped into my new body… that was really unexpected.

'BOINK'

And I had a body again. And boy was that body sore and messed up. When I came to I was in the middle of what I can only describe as a war zone during the middle ages. All around me small houses and huts were burning up, people were dying or dead in the streets and the smell of it all attacked me fiercely. Confused doesn't do justice for what I was. ' _Where the fuck am I?'_ I thought to myself. ' _Why is everything burning and HOLY SHIT why am I a child?'_ 10/10 don't recommend being in that situation.

I tried to take some time to analyze my immediate surroundings. I was in some sort of alley or what passed by it in this little village. There was a woman by me. Dead, unfortunately. I could tell she had been young and beautiful, with a kindly face to top. She was tall and had very well defined features with an almost regal or aristocratic look, which was weird since she was wearing very simple and peasant-like clothes. She had fiery red hair and died with a smile or her face. Respect for that.

The woman seemed vaguely familiar to me, but at the same time, I was sure I had never met her before so I ignored it.

That went through my mind in less than a couple of seconds, and I knew I had to get out of there as soon as possible if I didn't want to burn alive or suffocate on carbon monoxide. I looked across the alley that went by what I could only assume was one of the main streets of this place and planned to dash all the way out of the village. The place was small enough that through the smoke I could see the end of the houses. Total failure, that plan was. As soon as I ducked out of the alley I was picked up by the back of my collar by what it seemed at that time to be a giant hand, place into the shoulders of some guy and carried off to God knew where. I think my new little body wasn't able to handle all that smoke, so while being almost lulled by the up and down motion of my savior/captor- I really didn't know at that point- I went to sleep. My last conscious thought was that the man carrying me was running a little too fast by any human measures, but I rationalized that the toxic smoke had gotten to me and 'never minded' it.

When I woke up next I was in some sort of open carriage about a mile out of the village, overlooking it atop a cliff. There were several other children in the carriage, together with a few ragged women and even fewer men. Everyone one of them, and I could only assume me as well, covered in soot and a few burn marks. Thankfully I didn't feel like I had burned myself but it could have been just the shock of being in that situation. The people around me were definitely not speaking English but for some reason, I could understand them.

"It was Iwa, I'm sure of it."

"What are we going to do now?"

"How could they attack our village like this. We are not even close to the border."

That and a few other scraps of conversation gave me a less than ideal but better than nothing picture of what had happened. The village was attacked by foreign forces and we were the only ones to scape. Not many of us, about 40, according to a lightly burned man. There was another carriage behind ours filled with people too. The majority in both vehicles were children, which were probably the priority to whoever saved us while killing the adults must have been the number one goal for the assailants.

What did a number on me though, was the answer to my mental question of ' _Who saved us.'_ Approaching our carriage from the side and circling towards the back was a very average looking male. Nothing really stood out from him. The only thing that caught my eyes was the distinct uniform he wore. Navy blue, somewhat baggy pants, a long sleeve shirt of the same color, and a green flak jacket that any Naruto fan could pick off from a mile away. To top it all of, of course, a Konoha headband adorned his forehead.

' _No. Fucking. Way,'_ I thought, stunned. That guy is either a very good cosplayer or a real fire-breathing shinobi. My obvious suspicions were confirmed when the people in the carriage just took his appearance in stride. Like it was expected to come face-to-face with a ninja. Now that I focused on them I could see that there were several other shinobi around ours and the other carriage. I was so shocked that I only caught part of what he said.

"-out parents younger than eight will go to orphanages just outside Konoha. There you will be cared for, given education, and offered an opportunity to study in the village once you turn eight," he said with a voice that screamed boredom. The ninja proceeded to distribute a few edibles and water bottles to the battered survivors and we were soon being carted off.

My whole time in the carriage was spent coming to grips with my new situation. I had died, which was… charming. Then I had been reborn as a little kid into what was certainly the Naruto world. And of course, I couldn't have been reborn into a nice clan in the village, or at least a good little civilian family. No, it had to be in an orphan boy in the middle of a battle zone. Fan- _frickin_ -tastic. ' _Well, at least it wasn't Kiri or Iwa,'_ I relented.

' _Just focus on going to the orphanage, surviving for a few years, then going to the academy, training like a mad man and becoming a sick ass shinobi,'_ I calmed myself with images of me throwing around all sort of jutsu around. There is an inexplicable romance quality in being in a world where that kind of thing is actually possible. To sum it up, it was just so fucking cool. That is, when you don't think of the part that the majority of shinobi don't make it to their 30th birthday. MEH. Whatever. I've died before, not much sense in dwelling on it now.

It was while the battle of 'Cool ass jutsu' and 'high mortality rates' was going on in my head that we arrived into another town. We didn't stay there for long. Most of the adults left and a few of the children went with them. Probably with their parents or family members. I didn't really recognize any of them which was weird since I had some of this body's abilities, namely understanding of the language. I had some of its memories too, but they were very hazy and no faces or names came up in particular. Not even this body's. Mine, I guess.

Once that was done we set off again. I tried talking with a few of the other children but most were either sleeping or in shock. Like it or not, they were still children so I couldn't fault them for that.

The rest of the journey was uneventful and so very long. It took us the rest of the day and the whole night to arrive at our destiny. A decent looking three-story building that sprawled in the back of a valley. Stunning looking view to be honest. It wouldn't have been half bad to spend my childhood before going to Konoha there. The passing of our care between the Leaf ninja and the caretakers was quick and streamlined as if the coming of new children like this wasn't unusual. Makes sense too. Lots of death in this universe also meant lots of orphans.

There is no real highlight of my time in the orphanage. I was given a room to share with three other boys and was told the schedule by the matron of the place. I did found out some extremely important information while I was there though.

First, I got to look at my new body for the first time. Nothing to write home about, except for my eyes. No, I wasn't packing any Doujutsu. At least from what I could tell. I did have one green and one blue eye though. +10 badass points for heterochromia. I also had spiky reddish-brown hair and was as scrawny as a kid could get. It was good to know what you look like, for sure. Although it was a little unsettling to see myself as a kid.

Second, one of the older kids that came with our batch recognized me and told the caretakers I was around three years old and had recently gone into the village. That was good because I had no idea. Unfortunately, he didn't know much besides that. He tried to remember, a little too hard too, but apparently, while the answer was at the tip of his tongue he just couldn't come up with it.

And third, and perhaps most important in my opinion. I overheard some staff members saying how they were going to Konoha for the yearly Kyuubi defeat celebration and 'Oh how three years go by fast.'

Now _that_ was some juicy information to have.

I was exhilarated. Not only was I here, in this world, but I was the same age as Naruto and the rest of the Rookie Nine. Fucking. Lucky. Besides the dying part to get here, obviously. Still, all I could think was how I would use my knowledge of the future to change things, to save people. How I could tell the Hokage, at least when I could find a way to prove it to him, about what is going to happen and how to stop it. Sure, I knew I had to be careful and not change too much or meddle in pivotal events lest the knowledge becomes useless, but still, a lot could be done.

Well, all that planning went to shit about two weeks later.

I was told to line up with the new kids in the mess hall right after we woke up. The senior residents of the orphanage were sent back to their rooms while we stood there. I quickly became extremely apprehensive when a trio of masked individuals came through the large double doors. The matron escorted them towards us and gestured. "Thas' all the new ones for ya. As you can see, not much to look at this lot," she said dismissively.

I had the impression that she was purposefully downplaying us as if she was trying to tell them we wore not what they were after.

It didn't take me long to figure out who they were and what they wanted with us. Three masked shinobi with animal features on their masks, black overcoats, and were after children. Only one name matched that description. Root.

 _Shitless_. I got scared _shitless_. If there was one person I wanted to avoid during my time in Konoha, especially as a child, was Danzo. That old goat is a grade A motherfucker and I wanted nothing to do with him. So naturally, I hunched in on myself and plastered the most innocent non-shinobi material face I could scrounge on the fly. Some of the other kids tried to stuff out their chests and look tall and defiant to get the attention of the ninjas. They really didn't know what they were dealing with here.

The dog-masked Foundation member who appeared to be the leader of their small band took a few minutes looking to each of us.

"This one, the tall one in the back, and that one," he decided. I don't think I had ever heard a more monotone voice in my life(ves). Of course, as luck would have it, I was one of the chosen three. The last one too, just to give me hope I wouldn't be picked.

Great. No, PERFECT.

I just got in this world and already I was on my way to becoming a mindless drone.

The matron came towards us and hurried us to get our things. She seemed flustered and saddened. I doubt she knows what Root really is or what we would actually do there, but I'm sure she knows we are on our way to becoming child soldiers. Not that it is uncommon in this universe the existence of child soldiers, but to become Anbu you have to be specifically hardened and groomed to the shinobi world and she knew enough to look at us with pity in her gaze.

"Be good with the Ninja-san, okay", she tried to sound cheerful. Even her drawl wasn't as intense as it usually was. She knew the seriousness of the situation. "I'm sure you will all be great Konoha shinobi the next time I see you."

I know for a fact that six weeks into our training the two other children would most definitely never see her again.

Long story short we went with the three Root agents. I had no doubt in my mind that they were Danzo's men. I had accepted it. Did I rage internally because I had to go with them? Sure. A lot? Maybe. Did I cry a little when I got to my room and started packing my things? Obviously not, it was just dusty and it got into my eyes. I just knew it was futile though. They were, for some reason, interested in me. What was a 3yo orphan going to do? I couldn't ask for help to anyone. At this point in the timeline, Root was still a sanctioned force and the matron surely couldn't tell off the ninja. Escaping was also out of the equation. Not only did I not have any opportunities during the trip to Konoha, but even if I did, how could I escape three trained Anbu. Frankly, I was resigned to my fate. I did try to look for chances on our way to the Foundation base but there isn't such a thing as a distracted Root Anbu. Besides, as soon the Village Hidden in the Leaf's walls came into view we were promptly knocked out by our escorts and any chance to call for help went out of the window.

Clearly being knocked out or passing out in this world is way more common than in my previous. I can't remember a single instance where either of those things happened to me in my past life. Thus I wasn't nearly as surprised as I thought I would be when I woke up in a dimmed lit room sitting on a metal chair that I now know was purposefully built to be uncomfortable.

The two other children were sitting to my left in similar chairs. We weren't restricted or anything, but I doubt escape was a possibility anyways so I stayed put. The room was fairly small. Not enough to be cramped but definitely on the small side. The walls were gray and bare of any decorations. Not that I expected a nice bucolic painting in a Root base room but they sure were depressing.

I was startled out of my reverie when my walking nightmare came through the wooden door. Danzo, in all his splendor, walked in flanked by two Anbu. I was curious to know if his bodyguards already were Fuu and Torune but I doubted very much. Especially since they probably weren't even that old at this point. But in any instance, with the sketchy company Danzo keeps I wouldn't think his security personnel would stay alive for more than a decade.

"The three of you work for me now," Danzo monotoned. I guess his operatives had to get that from someone. "You will be trained in all ninja arts to be my tools in the constant war to protect Konoha."

'As charming as in the anime,' I thought.

"You will be made into perfect shinobi. To do that, emotions must be erased," Danzo said flatly. "They are a weakness, and weaknesses have no place in the heart of a tool."

"Konoha has become soft in the reign of Sarutobi, and you are the seeds that will help me to once again bring our village to the right path," Danzo continued his monologue.

'Man, he has to have serious skill in rationalizing all he does with the kids he brings in as a 'way to help Konoha',' I thought with distaste. This motherfucker had the gall to preach about protecting the village when I knew he was behind the Suna/Oto invasion during the Chūnin Exams. He was the one that not only stayed hidden underground with his shitty ass Anbu when Konoha was getting destroyed but also provided Orochimaru with the intelligence to breach the barrier around the village. Proper prick he is.

I noticed that the two boys were pretty ecstatic with the situation. I doubt they got it that when he said our emotions would be erased, he meant 'Yeah you're gonna become mindless drones that have to kill your best friend.' They would learn though. Sooner or later.

I was beginning to think our little visit with the devil was done for now, but alas, Danzo had one last surprise for us. Something that until then I had forgotten, even after I was picked out by the Root Anbu at the orphanage.

Danzo walked up to me first. He took me by the chin and I was forced to turn my gaze to him. I tried to look as indifferent as possible. I had already decided that if I wanted to survive in his hands I had to play the part. I was determined to do what I had to do to either wait it out until I had the chance to escape once I was let out for missions and what not, or at the very least I knew that he would die eventually. Though that was very far away in the timeline and I really did not want to wait more than 10 years to be free.

So after a good minute of staring into his eyes while he analyzed my face, my head, and my scrawny body, he cupped my cheeks forcing my mouth open and brought his right hand into what I thought was one the most common hand-seals, at least within the one-handed ones. After concentrating for a few seconds, Danzo started drawing in the air. His fore and middle finger were lit with a blue shine while he moved, leaving an afterimage of a blue blur. After a few moments a symbol with five lines that reminded me of a drawing of a crow, with the bottom two being broken in half, solidified in the air.

" **Cursed Tongue Eradication Seal,"** Danzo intoned with as much emotion as I had heard from him until then, before placing both his fingers right in the middle of my tongue.

I was really expecting to feel my tongue burning for a bit or at least some sort of pain. It's just the kind of thing you expect to come out of Danzo, I guess. Still, while it didn't hurt, it was like I felt a blanket settle over top me. It covered my whole body. It didn't weight anything, and after a while, the feeling disappeared, but if I concentrated enough on it I could feel it restricting me.

From what I remembered, this seal would impede me from speaking anything related to Danzo or Root. I'm not sure if it was anything in particular, like any incriminating facts, but I knew that talking about him was dangerous now. The seal would paralyze me completely, taking my ability to speak or move.

After the two other boys were branded we were escorted to our new happy abode where we shared a room with two other new arrivals. Each of us had a bunk bed and a trunk for keeping our things. Not that I expected to actually have any sort of privacy now, but it was good having the illusion of what that trunk and that bed represented for me. A little safe haven.

Fuck me was I wrong.

On the way to my new room, I didn't see anything out of the ordinary. We passed through two different halls. All dimmed lit with no decorations and high ceilings with different sized pipes running along them. We passed numerous rooms before getting to ours. A few were double doored and looked a tad more special than the others, but since I couldn't know what was behind them I tried to stow my curiosity away.

It didn't take long for our 'training' to start. I say training but conditioning was truly the better word.

The first week was not too bad. We were put through several tests with seven other groups of five children each. Two of these groups seemed to be of just girls. The ages varied from the oldest kids being around 7yo to youngins like me. I doubted that even a third of the kids would make it all the way to being a full-on Root Anbu. If I'm not mistaken only a fifth did, by the way.

The tests on the first and second day consisted of blood screenings, and hair, stool, and urine samples. I wasn't sure what they were testing us for. I imagined they had a way to identify Kekkei Genkai, but if that is what they were after they didn't mention it to us. Most of the adults, the ones assigned to us at least, barely talked and would only give one-word answers to our questions or dispense simple orders.

The rest of the week we had physical after physical tests. I imagine that happened because some kids might already have some sort of training and they wanted to find out our skill level. They would test our flexibility, our strength, endurance, stamina, even how long we could spend underwater. The only thing I had going for me during the physical tests was my stamina though. After the weeks in the orphanage, I had a lot of energy and I tried to compensate for my lack of real skills with that. Plus, I was pretty coordinated for a 3yo. Having a 15yo mind helps you with that.

It was certainly weird though. I could feel the difference between this body and my original one. Of course, the other was taller and older and whatever. But this little kid's flesh bag was strong. Definitely stronger than normal for a 3yo child. At least compared to an average child in my old world. I chalked it up to chakra, naturally. At that point, I was barely aware of its existence. I couldn't really feel it or conjure it or anything but given my knowledge, I knew that it was there and that it was the thing that powered the humans in this place.

Thankfully, they had mental and intelligence tests for us too. I don't think they reeeeally cared about the mental tests. It's not as if they didn't have a troupe of sociopaths, psychopaths, and emotionally scarred people already walking around here, so I doubt they would be discouraged if a few of us already came with factory defects. I also doubt it was considered a defect here.

When the intelligence tests came through, I knew I had to do something. Like it or not, I had to stand out. I couldn't become Root cannon fodder. I was here already, and I doubt I had any escaping chance, so I might as well use the abilities they would provide me with. So, in order to be noticed, I had to show them what's up. And nothing shows people what's up more than a 3yo little genius.

I was brought into a stark room with two of the famed metal chairs, one on each side of a wooden table and was told to wait by my masked escort who soon after left. I considered that the test had already begun, so I got up and made a show of analyzing the table, searching for something on its underside and doing the same with the chairs. I walked to the only other piece of furniture, a bookcase nailed to the wall and investigated it the same way. I decided to pick up one of the books that, by the dust accumulated on it truly displayed how it was only for show and plopped down on the chair facing the door. A show of being in control, really. Not sitting on the chair they expected me to. The one that would have me with my back to the door.

So I wasn't surprised when a minute later someone appeared at the door. To my surprise, or not so much since he would be able to know what I was doing while inside, a Hyuuga was to be the one to evaluate me. I guessed it made sense though. Root was only disbanded after the Uchiha massacre and Danzo could still recruit through normal means. Though he clearly didn't keep only to them.

"Hello, Hyuuga-san. Please, sit" I urged him. A little bold on my part. Maybe a little too much for my own good but I had a strategy and planned to keep it.

"Hello," the Hyuuga Anbu said. "Kai, isn't it?" he asked while leafing through some papers on a clipboard which I assumed had my information. He also didn't seem too conditioned compared to the others I had met there, though I couldn't be sure since in the show Sai was capable of some pretty convincing fake smiles. I didn't think so, to be honest. This was pre-disbanded Root after all and I very much doubted that even Danzo could get his hands on a Hyuuga child and condition him too easily. This man was probably recruited through regular Anbu selection methods. Refreshing, really.

Oh, yeah, so that was my name now, Kai. I didn't choose it or anything. It is just the name that was assigned to me on my first day. They didn't even bother asking me if I already had one, just said that I was Kai from then on and that was that. It wasn't too bad though. The name was alright and frankly, I was A-okay with Danzo not knowing my real name. I would revert to Haru whenever I got out of this place.

"Yes," I answered simply. Had to remind myself that, intelligent or not, I had to play the drone part. Even if the true conditioning had not started yet the sooner I showed myself as shinobi material the better.

"Okay then, Kai-san," the man said. He was the perfect picture of a Hyuuga. Calm and dignified, with the long straight bluish-black hair and silver eyes. Though kindly, his face gave nothing away. He was Anbu after all.

"Do you know what we are doing today?" He asked with something of a too patronizing tone for my taste, but he did see me as a 3yo like it or not.

I nodded at him and to start my showing off performance, replied as well articulated as possible, "After our physical and psyche tests, I suspect we will be doing some sort of intelligence evaluation now."

"I would guess you are planning on giving me an IQ test, then maybe follow it up with a few seemingly routine questions where I had to, in fact, find some deeper meaning in them. Read between the lines. To assess if I could look underneath the underneath."

Priceless. The look on his face absolutely priceless. I wished it was Danzo sitting there opposite me. I doubt Danzo would have even paused, he was that good of course, but it would certainly leave an impression on him. The Hyuuga Anbu tried to betray as little as possible too, but his eyes widened a little too much and his eyebrows went half-way up his forehead. Only for a second though, then he quickly did a double take and re-assumed his gentle yet indifferent mask, but that had been enough.

He had come in thinking he was going to have to talk with a snot-nosed 3yo who was probably still shaken by his family's death. Caught off guard was an understatement.

"That was very well put, Kai-san," He tried to recover whatever control he thought he had on the conversation. "Anyways, let me introduce myself then. My name is Hinoshi Hyuuga. And you are correct, I will be doing your intelligence evaluation today," Hinoshi said still a little perplexed.

"As you concluded, here is an IQ test for you to complete," he pulled out three pieces of paper stapled together. "After you finish we wi-" Hinoshi wasn't allowed to finish as someone abruptly opened the door. The blonde Iryo-nin I recognized as being one of the staff present during our health evaluations stood at the open door. She quickly stole a glance at me before settling on the Hyuuga.

"Hinoshi-san, I need a word… immediately," she emphasized.

"Of course," Hinoshi stammered. "I will be right back then, Kai-san. Why don't you work on that test while I'm out."

He seemed a little nervous, but I could barely blame him. That female Iryo-nin was properly conditioned and for her to be so hasty would leave me worried if I was her target too.

"Hai," I replied simply.

Hinoshi hurriedly left and I turned towards the IQ test. It was no big deal and seemed very similar to the ones I had taken in my other life. The only difference was the context of the questions, all of them being ninja related. But it looked to measure my logical, strategic, and analytical thinking. It also had short-term memory demanding questions and a few spatial recognition ones. All of them were basics of these sort of tests.

It's worth pointing out that it was a test tailor-made for children. While some questions could get a little challenging, since they not only wanted to differentiate the more intelligent kids from the less so ones, but they also wanted to tell the intelligent from the geniuses, I still didn't have much trouble answering any of the questions. I certainly was no genius but I also wasn't a child. Well, mentally at least.

By the time Hinoshi Hyuuga came back, looking a little flustered too, I was done with the test. He quickly took his seat across from me and after confirming I was done took my test.

He skimmed through the pages and I was sure I could see some surprise in his eyes, which was great for my much needed daily ego boost, and quickly put away the papers inside a plastic folder.

"Well, Kai-san," he paused for a bit, "procedure dictates me that since you were able to see through the reason for the follow-up questions they become, basically, obsolete," Hinoshi explained to me. Thankfully his patronizing tone was long gone at this point.

Frankly, he seemed a bit uncertain of that. As if he was slightly grimacing at every word of his explanation. "So, I'm afraid that cuts our time short. You are welcome to go back to your quarters and your training will be resumed tomorrow."

"It was a pleasure meeting you and I look forward to talking with you again," Hinoshi said getting up and leaving without waiting for my answer.

'Well, that was definitely weird. I wonder if it has something to do with what the medic told him,' I speculated a little confused.

Still, not bad for the intelligence eval. If Hinoshi could be believed then I had not only aced the IQ test, which I was sure I had but had been spared from the questions which I might've missed the actual meaning of, even if I knew that is what they were after.

So, all in all, the first week wasn't so bad.

Of course, I knew this was just the calm before the storm. The prelude to hell.

As if on cue, the very next day, we were woken up at 04:00 AM by buckets of cold water and were thrown from our beds.

It was time for the conditioning to begin.

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 _ **A/N:**_ _Again, please point up any grammatical and sentence structure errors. English is not my first language so I expect a few mistakes and would like to fix them. It's a learning process._

 _Also, I will try to post at least bi-weekly but if something comes up and I can't I'll update the latest chapter and let you know an ETA._


	2. Chapter 2

**_Summary:_** _Dying and getting thrown into another world can be really liberating, especially if it's the world of Naruto. Just imagine the possibilities, with the future knowledge you would have to boot, they are truly endless. Or so you thought. A story in which our OC has to fix the Naruto timeline but ends up becoming a little too preoccupied trying to survive one of the deadliest destinies in the Naruto world._

 ** _Disclaimer:_** _I do not own Naruto._

 ** _Warning:_** _Rated T for violence, language, and suggestive adult themes_ _._

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 **Chapter 2**

(3rd Person POV)

A blonde kunoichi walked purposefully towards the end of the cavernous hall. Her strides were long and graceful making almost no noise. Just how she was trained.

The large double doors opened up to her and the two masked shinobi on guard stepped aside. She had important news to report to her master and the ninja that flanked the doors had strict orders to let her in at once if and when she came.

The medic nin entered the large office and after the textbook check of her surroundings, her gaze settled on the man behind the desk. The room itself was spartanly decorated. It made it clear to whoever went in that the man meant business and business only.

Approaching the desk, the kunoichi went to her knees. "Danzo-sama, I came to report on the new batch that arrived earlier this week." She bowed her head to the leader of the Foundation.

Danzo, knowing the potential importance of this information, gestured with his hands. On cue, five blurs moved from the shadows and exited the room, closing the door behind them. Lifting his other hand in a half-ram seal, he activated the privacy seals on the room.

"Report, Shiro," Danzo said stoically. There was never time for pleasantries in his business.

"Hai," Shiro replied automatically. Whenever Danzo asked something of his operatives, there should be no other answer. "One of the subjects tested positive for one of the traits we are looking for."

Shiro produced the papers with the results and overall data on the subject in question and stacked them atop the desk.

"I see," Danzo glanced down at the papers. His eyes widening slightly at the information displayed to him. "Good work, operative." Danzo complimented her. Those were rare coming from him, but this was a special piece of information she just delivered him.

"Dismissed." He said flatly. There was no need for him to stress the necessity of discretion with this info. Shiro wouldn't divulge it even if she could.

Bowing her head once more and quickly exiting the room, Shiro went back to the medic ward to continue exercising her duties. She had no idea for what purpose Danzo needed that intelligence, but she didn't need to know. Shiro did her duty and that was that. No questions asked.

Back in his office, Danzo ran over the ramifications of this new development in his head. With this new piece on the board, Danzo could finally act on what would be one of his most daring moves so far. With this, Root would become the de facto power in the village, and the dynamics between him and Sarutobi would decisively shift to his favor.

Calling for his Anbu to come back into the room, Danzo already knew what he had to do.

"Boar, prepare your squad for immediate deployment." He addressed the leader of the group. "We will depart as soon as possible."

"Do you plan on coming with us, Danzo-sama?" Boar inquired. It was rare these days for the leader of Root to leave on a mission.

"Yes," responded Danzo standing up and rearranging his robes. "We are paying someone a visit."

(Back to 1st Person POV)

Step 1 of conditioning was really uninventive, apparently. After dumping cold water on us and throwing us around for a bit we were carried to an outdoor courtyard of sorts where we spent the last hours before sunrise shivering and huddling for warmth with one another. When the sun finally came up and we were allowed back inside, most of us were hacking and coughing our lungs out. It wasn't wintering yet, but fall was well on its way and Konoha at night could get pretty chilly.

No rest for the wicked, or the sick in this case, either. Our masked escort took us to a large chamber where we met with other Anbu and their charges. I suspect that all the newbies were being herded there but I couldn't tell for sure. I was too preoccupied with the collective beating the Root members gave us to count the number of children in the room.

There was no taunting at this point. No hurling insults or jests at us, it was purely physical. _'That's a different way to approach it,'_ I wondered. I would have thought they would come after the mind first. Weird.

They beat us around for a good hour and a half by my count. Forgive me if I'm wrong though, it's not as if they were announcing how long we had until they were done. Still, it didn't end soon enough. All it could be heard were groans and cries of the children. Mine included. I might have been older mentally, but I still felt pain and my little body wasn't exactly accustomed to this kind of trauma.

Again, silently, we were led by the same Anbu that brought us there back to our rooms. No words were uttered by him. He simply dropped us off and left.

Looking around the room a few minutes later I let myself think about my roommates.

I had been reluctant to converse with them from the very beginning. Considering what I knew all of us would have to go through during the next few years I didn't want to end up bonding with them. Very Sasuske-esque of my part, I know. But this was fucking Root. Odds were, most of us wouldn't even survive.

During the first week, there wasn't a lot of time to get to know each other and I was still debating whether I should try and befriend them or not anyways. We exchanged names and formalities and what not, but not much else.

After what had just happened though, I felt really bad for them. Not even one day into our conditioning and from the five of us, three of them were already breaking down. The oldest in the group was the worst too. Kaza was his name. Or, at least, the one they gave him. I think because he was one of the oldest of the new arrivals, he received an extra rough treatment in the beating chamber. His face was a mess of blood, saliva, and snot. As soon as our escort dropped us off in our room he went to his bad, curled up in a ball, and stayed unresponsive to my attempts to calm him.

The other two that were breaking were the raging types. They shouted, beat their pillows as if they were one of the Anbu that castigated us, and became violent if I tried to talk to them.

I knew that if these three were that easily broken, they wouldn't make it far here.

The only other one besides me maintaining control was the last occupant of the room. He was probably a couple of years older than me, had midnight hair and refined features. If I didn't know better, I would say he was an Uchiha. The only give away were his green eyes.

Despite my initial efforts, I couldn't keep myself from liking that kid, Yomu. He just had the kind of personality that drew people to him, even at that young age.

His whole lighthearted and chirpy demeanor did not waver in the slightest after our first taste of how Root would be, which surprised me a lot. At first, I thought he was just another one of the kids that were enthused with the idea of being a ninja and how cool it would be. I soon grew to learn though that Yomu was just the kind of person that tried to look at things through the most positive lense possible. His behavior was a refreshing break from everyone else's vibe, especially following that night.

I hated that he had ended up here though. He was too Naruto-like to be a member of Root.

"Hey Kai!" The boy addressed me as cheerful as if we had just been to the playground and not back from being beaten into a pulp. "Check this out." He said before backflipping from atop his bed.

"Ughhh," I groaned, still recovering from the kick to the stomach I took while trying to help one of the raging kids. "You're going to have to do that again, Yomu," I replied finally turning my head over to where he landed on the ground.

"Ah, you're no fun." Yomu nagged going back to his bed, probably to backflipping again. Where he took all of that energy out of despite what happened I had no idea.

I gave up calming the boy and started making for my bed. I was so small that the bed came up to my neck, and I with how sore I was the climb turned out harder than I anticipated. Our beds were simple metal frames stuck to the wall with a slim mattress on its top. The space beneath them was occupied by our trunks and whatever other possession we had. I soon admitted defeat and decided to use my brains instead, bringing out the trunk and using it as a step stool.

My bed was the furthermost from the door. The room was a simple rectangle with two-bed frames on each side and one on the back wall. Nothing adorned the walls and a single lamp hung from the ceiling.

"I hope they let us out soon." Yomu pointed to the curled-up ball of Kaza. "He really needs help, you know."

"I think we all need help at this point," I answered a little sarcastically. "I doubt though, I think this was just the start…"

I decided then that I had to tell them what I knew about Root. I would divulge any of my future knowledge, of course, but I could at least explain what Root was like and the treatment we could expect. They had the right to know. And if one of them snitched me out or something like that I could say that I had been listening in on conversations of the older members or something like that. I feel like that would only add up to my shinobi material points with Danzo.

Motioning Yomu over, I resolved to tell him first. The others were in no condition to hear about the hell we would go through. They might roll over and die considering how they were right then.

"I have to tell you something, Yomu," I confessed as he sat beside me on my bed. "It's important that you keep this between us for now, okay? I'll tell the others later."

"Sure! I won't tell anyone."

"Okay then," I started, trying to think how to go about this. "Well, I kno-" My voice hitched on that last word and for some reason, I just couldn't keep going.

I harrumphed loudly and started over.

"I know abo-" Again my voice faltered and I just couldn't get another word in.

 _'_ _Is this the cursed seal's doing?'_ I wondered remembering that now I couldn't speak a word about some aspects of what Danzo and Root do. _'No, this is different. The cursed seal should completely paralyze me and I can move just fine'_

I couldn't shake the feeling that something different was at play here. I remember the explanation about how the seal work from Sai in the show, and this is not it.

"Kai, are you okay?" Yomu said worriedly. I had been thinking silently for a while now.

"Oh, yeah don't worry about it. I just forgot what I had to say." I woke from my contemplation and rubbed my cheeks sheepishly.

"Fine… but you're telling me once you remember." He sulked a little at my lack of a juicy secret and hopped out of my bed. "I'm going to try to get some rest now."

"You should do the same," Yomu advised, giving me a pointed look. "We might need it."

Yomu might be cheerful and come out as somewhat naïve, but if you looked past that, into the depth of his eyes, you could see the intelligence and cunning he had. He knew that if what happened earlier was a testament to what Root had in store for us, we needed to be ready for anything.

Waiting a few minutes after Yomu's breath became that of someone asleep, and making sure the others weren't paying attention, I tested the theory I had come up with.

"The Th-"

That was all that came out of my mouth as a whisper.

I had planned to say 'The Third Hokage is supposed to die when the invasion of Konoha happens by Suna and Oto.' But I couldn't. I just couldn't. I tried talking about several different things that I knew would happen and all that came out of my throat were groans as I was soon cut off. _'Fuck...'_

"FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCKKKK," I yelled into my pillow. That I could say alright.

Desperation hit me in the face harder then the masked Anbu did earlier that day.

I couldn't talk about my knowledge. Everything I had planned for once I left this place was useless. I couldn't enlist the help of anyone if I couldn't tell them what I know. I needed proof for that, and how could I prove anything if I couldn't exemplify it by predicting something. I couldn't even say that I had future knowledge, because even then I was cut off.

 _'_ _Okay Haru, calm down. That just means you will have to change things yourself.'_ Talking in the third person to myself really calmed me down sometimes. _'It will be harder, yes, way harder, but not impossible. You can do it, YES YOU CAN'_

I suck at self-motivation. Truly. But that's all I had, and all I was going to get. So, after the short pick-me-up session as spent the rest of that day trying to figure out the limits and restrictions of what I could and couldn't say. Everything thing I tried whispering (I didn't want to risk someone overhearing if I actually managed to say it out loud) about the future was a bust. So, I tried talking about the past, like Obito meeting Madara on the cave, or how the same Madara didn't die at the Valley of the end.

It was to no avail though. Anything that wasn't common knowledge I tried and failed. The most that I got were simple things like how Rin died, or whose were Naruto's real parents. That was good and all, but not really that useful. Especially considering that I needed to keep (most) of the timeline intact if I wanted my knowledge to be worth something. Who knew what kind of ripples telling the village or even just Naruto who his parents were. Not that I would have the opportunity to do that any time soon.

I even tried to write it down or signal with my hands, but it was as if some kind of force just wouldn't let me.

After a whole day of that, I conceded and tagged the idea of telling anyone what I knew as a bust. _'So much for all this knowledge,'_ I thought, thoroughly annoyed at this point

Our routine for those next two weeks was tortuous at best. We were fed poorly and allowed to grow thin and meager. The showers were restricted to us and the smell in our room grew worst by the day. At least every two hours, when we were not freezing outside during the late night and early morning, or receiving our daily dose of whoop ass, senior members would go by our rooms screeching kunais on metal to keep us awake. Also, methodically, rats and bugs were tossed on top of us during the few moments we could sleep. To top it off, all medical attention was held off and to no one's surprise, a few children didn't make it. TWO WEEKS IN.

The children that were once excited with the opportunity to become shinobi and kunoichi finally came to terms with what that really meant in Root. The once cheerful and boisterous demeanor of the four boys I shared my room with was nowhere to be found not even three days into those hellish two weeks. By the end, we were as silent as our escorts.

I had to say, my scrawny little 3yo body was surprisingly sturdy and resilient. Oh sure, I was half-dead like all other children when the two weeks ended. Itching and smelly, sick, exhausted, and sore like a whore, but still there. I made sure to stand defiantly whenever we were lined up at that same chamber to take our beatings.

I had to keep reminding myself every day during that time of a particular line in one of my favorite books in my past life. "Almost dead yesterday, maybe dead tomorrow, but alive, gloriously alive, today," I whispered to myself whenever my lips weren't cracked to the point I could barely speak.

So, exactly fourteen days after our first beating, our treatment did a total three-sixty and we were treated like human beings again. In fact, we were being treated a little too well.

The Iryo ninjas were especially kind and attentive to us. Not only when it came to our health, but they were almost mothering us. Not only that, we were being allowed to sleep in and we were receiving half as much ration as we did in the first week. The kids were thoroughly okay with this and grasped at this new treatment like a lifeline.

It finally clicked for me three days after our treatment changed. ' _These sly, sly bastards.'_

How naïve of me to think that that was all physical punishment. No, they were breaking us mentally just as much. I realized, a little too late for my taste to be honest, that they were playing some kind of long-term 'good-cop,bad-cop' routine with us.

I mean, it explained everything. The first week we arrived here we were treated normally. They were letting us stew in our own expectations of what we would be doing here. They knew we were impressionable children and that the whole Anbu Black Ops vibe of the place and the people had an attractive quality to us.

So, after we finished building our expectations to the max it was time to absolutely drive that into the dirt. Leave no remnant of those naïve expectations of the shinobi world. It was a statement.

"Here, this is the reality of things. This is how the world works!" They seemed to be implanting that in our brains.

Sure, almost all the children had been through hardships or had seen their family die and their village burn, but this was different. This was a hands-on experience of what happens if you are easily trusting and eager with other people. Rather effective. I doubt any of us will ever forget the first lesson Root ever taught us.

Then, after our mental fortitude was at an all-time low, they coddled us. That was their way of showing that the same hand that punishes can also caress us. That we were their own now, we would be treated harshly but, in the end, would be taken care of. To try and show that there was nowhere else for us but Root.

It's worth pointing out that while the members that beat us would all wear blank masks, the medics and canteen workers that took care of us after the two weeks were done had their faces displayed. What a way to mess with our psyche. It was easier for us to become attached to the face-showing Root members than to resent unknown Anbu behind blank masks.

And so, for six months, the almost always bi-weekly cycle of 'good-cop, bad-cop' repeated itself.

Now, I'm no specialist on child development, but the way they build us up to break us down repeatedly was relentlessly brutal. It's no wonder Root members end up mindless drones.

Anyways, back to the six-month hell we lived.

Sometimes a cycle was interrupted abruptly before a full two weeks just to throw us off our game. The punishments and the level of coddling, if it could be called that by the end, varied and changed too.

After about three cycles, the punishments and conditioning techniques were less about weakening us and more about strengthening us. Food wasn't held off since they wanted us to grow faster and stronger, and instead of throwing us wet and cold out into the night we would be constantly pushed to our limits during our training, which at that point consisted on building strength, conditioning, and flexibility. The beatings were still administered but were more targeted and less chaotic. As if to get us used to be battered and bruised and still keep going. Mock torture sessions that were not so mocked were also one of their methods.

I still remember the first time I was dragged out of my room with a bag over my head, held up by my two elbows connected behind my back. I was thrown into my favorite chair model in the world and spent the next three days in what can only be called Anko's and Ibiki's wet dream. All sorts of techniques were displayed on me. Shocking, beating, cutting, waterboarding. They truly believed in a hands-on approach to learning at Root. Especially since the ones conducting the torture were at times the other children.

With supervision, of course. Safety first was one of their mottos. Well, supervision or not, inexperienced interrogators inevitably led to a few untimely deaths. Nothing unusual there though.

While the punishments were becoming more, dare I say, useful, our rewards, safe weeks we called them, became much more just that, safety, than actual coddling. Not even two cycles into the six months our safe weeks turned to normal treatment by the staff. Eventually, indifference was the most we got but since it was such a reprieve from our punishment weeks, we couldn't help but cherish them.

During those six months, I also got to see Danzo again after my first day with the Foundation. He would come and check on our progress at least once a month and made sure to appear as regal as a man walking with a cane and with half his face covered in bandages could. Danzo was met with such obedience by all of Root that he met on his path that the new children couldn't help but feel adoration and devotion to that man. As if he was an idol. We didn't dare approach him lest we burn like Icarus.

I had to admit, it was harder than I thought it would be to maintain my sanity. The whole Danzo adoration thing was starting to rub off on me and having to actually play along just made it worse. I hated it. I grasped at anything that I could to disconnect from the present. Namely my past life and what I could, and would do once I got out of that hell hole. So, I spent those six months almost apart from my body, just going with the motions. It's a rather useful ability, especially during the torture and beating sessions.

Six months into our conditioning and our numbers had thinned out to about half of what we started. Twenty-two kids left from the batch of a little over forty. Only six months too. We still had years to go, but I suspected that all the weak had already been weeded out. Next, the strong ones would. To leave only the exceptional. That was the way of Root.

The room seemed more spacious when we lined up on the last day of our initiation period. Fewer bodies I supposed. No smiley, hopeful faces anymore. We were calloused survivors then. Not warriors, not yet. That came next. But damn it if we weren't survivors.

I took that time to scan around the room for a minute. I hoped to see Shin or Sai in our midst. I knew Fū Yamanaka and Torune Aburame were a little older than us, so I didn't expect them to be there, but Sai at least was in my group age. It was to no avail though, he wasn't there. Maybe he got there a little before us or even after. ' _Oh well, worth a shot.'_

I was looking straight ahead when Danzo came in through one of the side doors. The ever-present two-man guard flanking him. The children seemed to stand up taller as he walked up the mini stage set up for his speech. Their faces a mix of fear, expectation, and yearning. Probably for recognition if I had to guess, all while trying to maintain the expected Root poker face. They were still children after all. And if there is one thing I learned from watching Naruto's childhood is that kids will go to great lengths to get recognition and approval. In this case, they all wanted it from the man that become their idol.

I maintained a stony face though, even as he glanced past me and his eyes met mine. He had something planned for me, the bastard. I just knew it. His gaze stayed with mine a second too long to indicate just passing interest.

I spaced out the first part of his speech being too occupied trying to figure out what Danzo had in store for me. Not that it mattered though, from what I was hearing during the few moments I paid attention it was mainly some good old militaristic propaganda, sprinkled with confidence boosts to the children that would surely be used to bring them back down again in the future and, of course, the egotistical-bastard special: Self-patting on the back on how following his ideas were the best way to ensure the protection of Konoha. It doesn't get more Danzo than that.

Finally, when he got to the interesting parts, I was forced to pay attention.

"As to your future training," continued Danzo, "just how I promised on your first day here, you will be taught in all shinobi arts."

"You will be focusing on Taijutsu and Bukijutsu for now. Depending on your ages, you will be starting on Ninjutsu and Genjutsu as well." Danzo turned to the door as ninjas walked in carrying boxes after boxes of books and scrolls. "For those who don't know it yet, you will be learning how to read and write, and after that, to understand the principles of Fūinjutsu."

I can't even lie, after six months of misery and torment, I was just as excited as the other children to begin our shinobi training. Worst of all, I felt thankful to Danzo for giving me the chance to become a ninja. And that was with me knowing everything I did about him, I could only imagine what was going on inside the head of the others.

"Also, from now on, you will be paired with someone deemed compatible with your skills and your age" Danzo addressed the crowd with a predatory look in his eyes. "You will do everything together. Eat, sleep, train. They will be your partner until your graduation into full Root members."

His double meaning did not go unnoticed for me. ' _Yeah, obviously they will only be your partner until you graduate, after all, one of you will have to die to get there.'_

God, just imagine that for a kid. They present you to a world of zero emotions and attachments once you get here. After driving that into your brain, they basically hand you a best friend, and like it or not that's what you both became to one another after the many years of doing everything together. They are your only family, the only ones you can depend on emotionally. Then, in order to achieve the only dream they leave in your reach since you were basically a toddler, graduating into Root, you must kill your most precious person. That, or dying unaccomplished.

What an evil fucking genius Danzo is. After all, once you sever your only human connection in the whole world, there is only your dream left. There is only Root. As it should be, in his head.

Fucking maniac.

I promised myself then and there that I would be the one to kill the son of a bitch. Not that I didn't want to before, but just seeing the look on the kids face made my blood boil. Besides, to get my freedom, at least from the cursed seal, I needed him dead. The only thing is that I would be the one doing the deed now.

I had just thought of the perfect pun for when I killed him too.

I smirked internally at that moment. Smirked, not giggled.

God, I'm pretty sure after a while I actually let a Machiavellian cackle in my mind. I was SO hyped to get my training going and becoming strong enough to kill Danzo and all the other pricks in the Naruto world.

I would find a way too to save both myself and my partner too. That was still years to come though and I had long enough to plan something. Either fake my or his death. Defecting. Anything, I wasn't going to play Danzo's sick game.

That petty little resistance in my mind was of no consequence, apparently. After Danzo dismissed us and we started filing out of the room, I was pulled aside by one of his bodyguards.

"Danzo-sama wants a word with you, kid." The boar masked Anbu put a hand on my shoulder and dragged me out of the line.

Here it comes, then. Apparently, I wouldn't have to wonder long on what that look on Danzo's face meant.

 _'_ _Shit, shit, shit.'_

For all my internal bravado I couldn't help but be terrified when I was the only child left in the room, surrounded by Root members and with no possibility of escaping. _'Huh, have the walls always been this close?'_ I thought, trying to sound as cheerful and jolly in my own mind. You create your own defensive mechanisms, I guess.

"You are the one named Kai, aren't you," came Danzo's voice from behind me. I shivered instantly. That guy has a creepy quality that is difficult to point out. It's not a straight-out disgusting feeling you get with guys like Orochimaru, no. Danzo is just too quiet and certain of himself for my taste. As if he's in on a joke that you're not, or that he is always watching you from the shadows and knows your nasty little secrets. Which I suppose when you live in a Root base, he probably does.

I only had one thing up my sleeve that he had no way of knowing. Who I really am. Creeper or not, he couldn't have known that.

So, as one must keep one's cards close to one's chest, I had to play with his expectations and had to be the newly semi-mindless genius 3yo. As long as I kept that persona in front of him and of all other Root I would survive.

"Hai, Danzo-sama." I immediately avoided his gaze, bowed my head, and went to my knees. Just as I knew his trusted Anbu did.

"Hmm," He seemed pleased with my subservience. Danzo has a serious inferiority complex with the Third Hokage and likes to play the Big-Dick-Bandido with his drones, I realized. ' _Might as well give him what he wants.'_

"It was made known to me that you are a youngster with a lot of potential, Kai," I finally looked up at that with a slightly surprised look on my face. I was an impressionable child and my supposed idol had just acknowledged me, after all. Why wouldn't I be happy?

"Yes, your results are impressive for someone your age. Unprecedented, actually." Danzo continued after my little 'lost and recently found puppy' act. "You will be receiving your training directly under me and Root's top-ranking members."

Now _that_ , I wasn't expecting.

Could that have been it? The reason for his look. Is he intending to groom me? But for what, to be his successor? My mind was going a hundred miles a minute processing that.

' _I'm sure it's not every day they have a 3yo answer to the intelligence test as I did, and I also proved extraordinary resilient if not skilled during our training and physical torment_ ,' I tried to rationalize this new development as best as I could.

I could only assume that was the reason. Though I knew to always be suspicious of Danzo, no matter the situation. Knew to always look underneath the underneath when it came to the old warhawk.

I wouldn't complain about the special attention though. Say what you will about Danzo, his training methods may be brutal and oppressive, but damn it if they didn't get results. Names like Yamato, Sai, Fū, Torune, and even for a time Kakashi, Kabuto, and Orochimaru had passed through his tutelage. Not a bad track record.

"Thank you, Danzo-sama," I said bowing my head once more. "I won't disappoint you."

"I don't think you will." He assured me. "Gather your things and follow Cat to your new quarters." Danzo said pointing to one of his masked bodyguards.

"Hai, Danzo-sama." I stood at attention and bowed to the waist this time. Like the good war-dog he intended me to become. I still didn't know if I was to replace him or simply to become one of his officers, but I doubted he would want anything less than total devotion.

"Oh," Danzo stopped mid-stride as if an insignificant detail had just popped into his head. "Bring the boy named Yomu with you. He is to be your partner."

My breath was caught at my throat and I winced heavily.

Danzo turned around and made his way out of the room. "We start tomorrow."

* * *

 **A/N:** _That didn't take two weeks, clearly, but that is there more as the upper limit of my update schedule than anything._

 _Anyways, I have a part of the story already thought out but feel free to make any suggestions or just let me know if there is anything in particular you would like to see._

 _Again, please correct me on any grammatical errors._


	3. Chapter 3

**_Summary:_** _Dying and getting thrown into another world can be really liberating, especially if it's the world of Naruto. Just imagine the possibilities, with the future knowledge you would have to boot, they are truly endless. Or so you thought. A story in which our OC has to fix the Naruto timeline but ends up becoming a little too preoccupied trying to survive one of the deadliest destinies in the Naruto world._

 ** _Disclaimer:_** _I do not own Naruto._

 ** _Warning:_** _Rated T for violence, language, and suggestive adult themes_ _._

* * *

 **Chapter 3**

I flew back a good 10 feet through the air before landing on my butt with a thud. Boar did not pull his punches, even when fighting a little kid. He said it was for getting me used to fight stronger opponents since I was such a weakling.

What a charmer Boar was.

I knew he was saying that just to motivate me though, and I had to admit it was working wonders. My pride might just be my demise one of these days. So, whenever he knocked me back, I kept getting back up and attacking him with all I had. During our Taijutsu practices, Boar would usually let me have a go at him for a while before hitting back. I would punch, kick, elbow, and knee him. Or at least I tried to. Every one of my blows was met with a block and the rare ones that made it past his defense were dodged at the last second. It was infuriating. And I think he was going around our spars that way just because of that. To help me get rid of any emotions during a fight. So, he taunted me as much as possible… how ironic.

My form was still sloppy too, but what I didn't have in skill I had in energy. We would have at it for a good hour before I was spent. Not bad for a child of 4. Of course, after I was completely exhausted, he would make me keep going even then, to drive me past my limits. Also, to teach me that, apparently, you can't choose to stop for a break in the middle of a fight for your life. Curious, that. After about a year with Root, the concept of fighting for my life was still a bit foreign. Such a thing in my past life was almost unheard of. You would have to actively search for a way to endanger your life to have that experience. But what an experience that was. What a thrill.

Every day that went by here I found myself enjoying having to fight for my life more and more. I knew that wasn't exactly a good thing. No sane person should relish going through that, but I guess that's what they wanted here at Root. Soldiers. Nothing more, nothing less. You lived for war, and only in war, you could be alive. At least for now. They had been doing this to us since our six-month initiation period ended. Changing us from pure survivalists to warriors.

I knew that this was not all there was to a Root member though. You couldn't just be a nut case with a fetish for killing. No. You were a soldier, sure. But you were also an infiltrator, an assassin, an escort. You were anything Root needed you to be. This was just the first step. Turning us into fighting machines.

"That's enough for today, Kai," Boar said after knocking me down for the last time. "Yomu should be finished with Cat by now too. I expect you both on time for your morning lessons tomorrow."

Cat had kidnapped Yomu right before our afternoon spar with Boar that day. She said his Kenjutsu was still lacking and that she wouldn't have a disciple who couldn't hold his own with a sword.

The tip-less tantō was our weapon of choice during the Kenjutsu part of our Bukijutsu lessons, as it was with most other Root Anbu. Cat was our usual weapons instructor and boy could she be a meanie. I wouldn't leave a session with her without being covered in cuts and bruises. In fact, I still have a handful of scars with her signature throughout my body to this day. I liked her though, weirdly enough.

She was conditioned alright. Thoroughly too. But I suspect that overseeing two young kids daily had an effect on her. I always heard that no love could compare to a mother's love and although she did _not_ mother us in the more normal sense of the word, I could tell she had grown fond of Yomu and I. In a distorted Root-way of being fond of people, but fond, nonetheless. Perhaps that was why she was so thorough with us. She knew only the strong survived here.

Our lessons with her would usually take place just after lunch, every day. Proficiency with the tantō was a must to Root Anbu as the use of shurikens and kunais were to most ninja. We, of course, practiced with them as well.

After being chosen by Danzo, Yomu and I had been put into a strict learning regime that encompassed everything a ninja needed in his arsenal. The only things we had not started learning yet were Elemental Ninjutsu and Genjutsu. We were apparently still too young for that. Not too young to learn torture and interrogation techniques though, not that, God forbid. At least they had taught us the three basic Academy jutsus necessary for graduation. I had to say, even though I did not agree in the slightest with Root's training methodology, Konoha's Academy was so fucking lacking. The standard age for graduating is 12yo, and one of the main tests for that was using Kawarimi, Henge, and Bunshin no Jutsu. Like really? At 12?

Anyway, it was while learning to torture and interrogate that I had my first encounter with one of the Naruto characters besides Danzo.

Fū was the third member of our little three-person class on that subject. Him, Yomu, and I would weekly partake on real torture session with one of Root's prisoners. Not one of the mocking sessions we had, a real one. If someone had told me while I was being a subject to one of our mock torture get-togethers that there was a big difference between a real and a mock session I would not have believed. So, him being of the Yamanaka Clan I can only suspect that Fū was supposed to become Root's future interrogation specialist, and although he would probably only need his Clan's Jutsu to get the information he wanted, he too was taught the more… primitive… techniques a regular torturer needed to know.

I tried to befriend him, I really did. Even though I needed to maintain the mindless drone in-training cover I still approached him and talked about what we learned to get to know him better. It felt kind of weird using torture as an ice breaker, but it was all I had. I didn't particularly remember anything specific of him from the shows, so I went with that. It was useless though. Try as I might the conversation stayed on that unsavory topic. Fū was already in too deep. He was a full-on drone.

Besides learning how to remove nails in the most painful ways possible and to poke nerves with senbon needles as a way to get the answers you want, I was also instructed in the other shinobi arts.

For now, infiltration and assassination were taught to us in a theoretical way. Together with strategy and battle tactics. After all, drones or not, Danzo couldn't be on the battlefield with us and the Captains had to come up with the necessary plans to come out victorious.

I knew Danzo had plans of mitigating the theoretical assassination part soon enough though. He would probably start us off with finishing off a prisoner that had outlived his usefulness. No killing of animals like they do in the academy here in Root. That was too soft even for newbies like us. The first kill was to be human.

I would also think that in a few years they would start sending us off in missions too. Probably after they finally taught us Nin and Genjutsu. Whenever that might happen.

Besides Boar, Hinoshi would often instruct us in Taijutsu. No, he didn't teach us the Jūken, the Hyuuga's Gentle Fist (although I did pick up on a few tricks knowing how useful it could be). Danzo might be his boss but he was a regularly recruited Anbu and Danzo couldn't order him to give his Clan's secret Taijutsu away. What Hinoshi did was coach us in the uses of chakra to strengthen one's body and one's blows. Being a Hyuuga, Hinoshi naturally had a talent in chakra control, and as a practitioner of the Jūken, he was more than qualified in teaching us how to use chakra to damage others and strengthen yourself. Not only that but by using his Byakugan he could detect the flow of chakra in our bodies and help us in redirecting it the right way and in the right amount.

With my knowledge of the whole Naruto world, I was well aware of just how important chakra control was and what could be accomplished with mastering it. Things like Medic ninjutsu relied heavily on it, and characters like Tsunade and Sakura after her based their whole Taijutsu style on releasing chakra at the moment they make contact with their target. And they were crazy strong mainly because of that. Other things like creating a chakra scalp and simply not wasting chakra while using your jutsus were all dependent on chakra control.

With that in mind, I knew I had to master it. So, I would always try my best during Hinoshi-sensei's lessons. I gave everything I had in every session. As luck would have it though, I was absolute trash on it. No talent at all. In fact, Hinoshi made sure to let me know just how bad I was compared to others he could see with his Byakugan. Which was great for my self-esteem… I could still perform a Bunshin, barely. I wasn't as bad as Naruto at least, the Bunshin didn't come out all gooey and white like his did in the show. It just wasn't perfect, or anything close to that. Granted, I didn't have as much chakra as him, Naruto being a jinchūriki and all, but I understood his plight.

To top it all off, Yomu had to have been a natural at it. I, of course, being at least ten years his senior, was definitely _NOT_ jealous.

That was mine and Yomu's relationship in a nutshell. Even knowing what would be asked of me in the future (I had no intention of going through with it, of course), Yomu and I quickly became the best of friends. Rivals too. I don't think we were quite at Naruto and Sasuke's level of rivalry, but we had our moments. None of us was a brooding emo or a complete idiot, so we were friends before we were rivals. It felt strange being best friends with a 6yo, but luckily Yomu was mature for his age. Imagine having to deal with an actual 6yo. Although I doubt any Root initiate maintains the annoying kid quality all children have for long.

I was lucky that I got him as a partner too since he was like me. Yomu was, thankfully, able to maintain his personality after the many trials we went through at Root. Whenever we were training with the other Foundation members we were as stoic as them, but when we knew we were alone we could be ourselves and salvage whatever childhood we had left. Well, he had left anyway.

"Of course, Boar-san," I replied getting back up and bowing at the waist. Boar might be rough around the edges, but he was an alright guy. Drone-ness aside.

I stayed in the secluded training ground for a few minutes more after he left. Being outside gave me a false sense of freedom that I tried to cherish whenever I could. The place had a barrier around it that, like the one around Konoha, wouldn't let intruders in without warning the Foundation. The difference though is that leaving the barrier without permission would also set off the alarm and, having Root's base on one side, blocking the way to Konoha, and endless forests to the other, where I would be easily outpaced by Root members after me, gave me no chance of escaping.

I tried to not even focus on that possibility at this point. Sure, I still looked here and there for any chances but with the cursed seal on my tongue, the persona I had to maintain, and the fact that I would not leave Yomu behind no matter the circumstance limited my searches.

Not wanting to leave Yomu waiting for long I went inside and headed to where his practice with Cat was. Most of our Bukijutsu training happened in one of the many indoor gymnasiums Root had. From the anime, I always thought Root's bases consisted of only those weird pipe-rooms and whatnot. Turned out that, at least prior to being disbanded, Root was a well-funded organization that boasted impressive resources and training facilities for its members. Not only that, but the sheer number of either in-training or full on Root Anbu impressed me as well. I suspect the number of 'affiliates' would go down by a lot in the next years, leaving only the most loyal (read: conditioned) and committed to Danzo's cause.

I didn't have to wait long for as soon as I arrived in the hall leading to the gym, I bumped into Yomu, all cut up with his clothes in tatters.

"Fun session?" I whispered sarcastically at him. My only response was a shrug and a quick chop to the back of my head for my problems. The bastard was taller than me by a head and had free access to the top of my skull. Sure, he was two years older, but it still stung. One of the worse things about being reborn as a kid was having to get used to the diminished field of vision and the shear blow in my pride.

We walked silently the rest of the way to our room, passing by a few Anbu and many Root trainees like us. We didn't have much contact with any other kids so a quick nod of the head to each was all the necessary formalities. Root had a very efficiency before tradition approach to this kind of things. Except when Danzo was concerned, of course. We would have kneeled faster than (your mom) a church congregation on a Sunday if he came our way.

Finally closing the heavy door behind our backs, we let our stoic drone mask drop. Our room was pretty isolated from the rest of the base, and since we usually only came back to sleep in it, Danzo didn't waste his resources spying on us here. We were one of his most successful soldiers on-the-making and, so far, we had kept the façade of emotionlessness in front of him perfectly after all. It's not like he trusted us, he just didn't suspect us.

"Ahh, Cat can't be ruthless when she thinks we are slacking," Yomu sighed tiredly and plopped himself on his bed. Cuts and all. "It's not as if I'm doing it on purpose either, I'm just not good with a sword. Give me a Bō staff any day of the week. The one time I tried it when Lizard was subbing for her, I completely destroyed you too."

My forehead grew a huge tick, but I ignored the jibe. He was just doing it on purpose to annoy me too. To see my reaction. Yomu liked making people squirm, I found out. It was a little out of his character, but I liked the dry humor he developed. Banter is a two-way street, it wouldn't be fun if I was the only one provoking.

"I wouldn't say completely, but you did best me that day," I conceded. "Why don't you just ask her to use the Bō, then? If you're that good at it she won't take it away from you."

Yomu turned his head from the pillow it was buried in and looked at me with incredulity in his face. "You really think Cat, of all people, would let me use something besides the tantō without fully mastering it first?"

"Fair," I said simply.

We spent the next few minutes in companionable silence as we changed into less ragged clothes and Yomu cleaned his wounds. We had an hour before a session on Chakra Control with Hinoshi and took the rare break to rest in our respective beds after getting ready. Looking at the ceiling as if contemplating something, Yomu was the one to break the stillness.

"Hey Kai," Yomu said without looking at me.

"Yeah?"

"Have I ever told you about my family?" Yomu asked quietly. I opened my eyes and sat up at that. Despite our friendship, we had never talked about his family, and I had never asked. I had told him about my past before, which was not much. I just told him that I didn't remember anything before I was found by Konoha nin when my village burned. He also didn't pry further which I was thankful for. I had tried but not only could I not speak about my future knowledge, I also couldn't utter a word about the circumstances of my arrival in this world.

"No, I don't think you have," I replied after a moment.

"Hm," Yomu hummed and was quiet for a minute after acknowledging my answer. "Would you like me to?" He finally asked.

"If you need someone to listen to you, I'm here," I reassured him. Sometimes people don't need to talk about something, but they do need to be listened to. As weird as that sounds.

I always felt that part of his buoyant demeanor was a way of coping with what happened to him prior to getting here. The way he stayed cheerful even in the moments of despair we had felt while here was a little too much, even for an optimist like him.

"I came here from an orphanage, you know, just like you," he started his tale, still looking at the ceiling. "I still have memories from before that though. I remember living with my mother and my twin sister in a small village by the border between the Land of Fire and the Land of Fields, where Kusagakure(Grass) is."

"It also burned like yours. Every single house was torched, and no adults lived to see another day, including my mom." He continued his story with no emotion is his voice. It wasn't like his voice showed it didn't matter to him, what happened. It was more like it was firm and unwavering, with no weaknesses. "I still have no idea why ninja would do that. We had nothing of value and didn't pose a threat to anyone. Not only that, but Konoha and Kusa were not at war with each other or with anyone else, so it just doesn't make any sense."

"Anyway, my sister and I were also brought to an orphanage by Konoha nin like you. We didn't stay there for long though, so I don't even know where it was. Three days later, together with another half a dozen kids, we were chosen and brought here. We were the only ones from our village to be chosen too. My sister was so happy she got to be a shinobi. She said it was her dream to become an Iryo nin, and that good things could come out of bad ones. Like her being able to follow her dream after our village was burned." I gulped then, already knowing where this was going. If he had not mentioned his sister before, and I had never seen him speaking to anyone besides me, there was only one thing that could have happened.

"She died on the third day of our first punishment week during one of the group beatings," Yomu said quietly, confirming my theory.

 _'Fuck'_

"I didn't even have a chance to talk to her the whole time we were here. Our group would always stay on the opposite side of the room where the girl groups were brought in from and I didn't see her at all during the testing week. After the beatings began, I would always look to the other side of the room to check if she was okay. She had always been fragile too. I don't even know why she was chosen." He said, his hands shaking. Not with tears, no. With rage. Suppressed rage.

"They beat her to death." Yomu growled, his eyes were red with anger and spittle flew with every syllable he uttered. "They beat her until her head caved in and her brain was splattered on that goddamned floor."

He stayed quiet for a few minutes after that, calming himself. I had no idea what to say at that point, or that I should even say anything. What could I say? I wouldn't bring her back and I doubted he wanted my pity, so I held my tongue waiting for him to continue.

"You know what's the worst thing about it?" Yomu asked rhetorically. "I can't even blame the people who beat her. They are all fucking robots. All of them. They didn't do it out of pettiness, or because she might have annoyed them or in a burst of rage. No, they did it because that _man_ told them to." He spat, disgust heavy in his mouth when mentioning Danzo. "He ordered them to kill her, probably as an example of what weakness brings."

"I thought I would try to kill him the next time I saw him, or that I would yell and rage at the Root agents that did that to her." Yomu looked me dead in the eyes for the first time during his story. "All I felt as I looked down at my sister's body was determination though. Determination to get strong enough to rid the world of the stain that is Danzo and everything he represents. I know I can't do it right now, or that I probably won't be able to for a long time. But one day Kai, mark my words," Yomu said, getting one of his kunais out, slashing his left hand's palm and closing it in a fist. "I will kill Danzo Shimura and destroy Root… this I promise."

We stared at each other for the longest time following his vow. I could see that while he trusted me enough to tell me that, part of him was still afraid I would betray him and tell Danzo of his promise. I thought of playing with him and pretending to be insulted by the threat to our supposed idol but decided otherwise.

"I made that promise to myself six months ago, Yomu," I smirked at him and pointed behind my back. "You better get in line."

Yomu was slightly taken aback by my answer but he soon regained his composure and grinned manically at me. I had never seen Yomu look so… predatory, but I liked that he had a dark side to him. He would need it if he planned to go ahead with his ambition.

We got up and grasped forearms, faces grim with purpose and determination.

"If not me, you. If not you, me." Yomu said as we shook on our promise to ourselves and to each other.

XxX

Weeks passed following our promise without anything noteworthy happening. We trained, and we trained, and we trained. There was nothing outside of that. We were too young to go on missions and it's not as if we could just take the day off and go for sushi in Konoha. No, we just trained. It wasn't even boring, training every day like that. It was just mechanical. For three weeks our routine didn't change in the slightest. Boar and Cat stayed at the base, so we didn't get any new teachers and Danzo didn't prepare any special surprise for us. Which he usually did from time to time. It's not as if just because we passed the six-month initiation period that the beatings and torture sessions were beyond us, they just became more infrequent.

Yomu and I were on our way to spar with Boar and with each other at one of the outside training grounds. Even though fighting Boar or one of the other Anbu Black Ops was always more challenging it was still awkward due to the height difference, so Boar would usually show us a thing or two before pitching us against the other.

When we arrived at the grounds, we had a little surprise waiting for us. Well, not so little and not for us, exactly, since it was more of a surprise for me. It wasn't unusual for Boar, Cat, or Hinoshi to bring another shinobi to our lessons, or just send one when they were busy, so I assume Yomu was taking the other person's presence in stride.

I, on the other hand, was _fucking_ hyped.

Standing beside Boar was Kakashi _fucking_ Hatake, in the standard Konoha Anbu uniform and wearing the same mask he did in the anime. _'Holy fuckkk',_ I thought as I stood in the same place I had been when I saw him first. I didn't want to fangirl Kakashi that much, but he was one of my favourite characters in the whole story. Hell, he was one of my favourite characters of all stories. He was always dropping knowledge on Naruto and the others, had a sad ass backstory (pretty common in the Naruto world though), and he's just overall fucking sick.

I reigned in my excitement as much as I could and reminded myself that I had a persona to maintain. I had to act professional and stoic, I couldn't just go up to him and ask for an autograph or something.

 _'Can't I? NO, remember what you're here for.'_ I mentally reprimanded myself.

Boar looked up from the stack of paper in his hands and acknowledge us with a nod. "Good, we can finally start now that you're here. I have a few reports to write, so he is going to be subbing for me." Boar said pointing at Kakashi.

The silver-haired shinobi examined us for a moment then simply nodded at us both. I couldn't tell for sure, but I think he was surprised at how young we were. Even for a guy that became a Chūnin at the age of 6 at least the small red hair-ish child must have looked too young to be there. Especially since we weren't at war any longer. Well, not officially at least. Small skirmishes and covert operations still happened all the time.

I was happy that, for a change, Yomu and I had decided to wear masks today. We don't, usually, but we had been trying to get used to them for the past week and tried to have it on as much as possible. I had every intention of leaving Root at and joining the normal society at some point, and I didn't want someone like Kakashi to know I had been one of Danzo's goons. He would try to as he did with Sai, but he would be wary to trust me if he recognized me as an ex-Root.

"I just told him to spar against you two and correct any mistakes you make," Boar continued after our little nodding exchange.

"What do we call you?" Yomu asked looking at Kakashi. I was about to ask the same thing, just to see if he would give us his real name.

Boar, however, had other plans and answered for Kakashi before he could say anything. "He's going to be subbing for me, so just call him Boar."

I sweat dropped at that. Conditioned people can get really uninventive with anything personal.

"Alright then, get started. Danzo-sama is waiting for these." Boar said stacking the papers in a neat pile and walking away after nodding at Boar 2.0.

Kakashi exhaled heavily and turned back to us. I don't think he was super excited about having to spar with two kids. "You two against me. Show me what you got, and don't hold back."

"Hai!" Yomu and I exclaimed, jumping back a few meters to get some distance between Kakashi and us.

(3rd Person POV)

Kai and Yomu looked at each other and nodded before unstrapping their respective weapons. Kai took out his tip-less tantō and Yomu reached for his bō staff. He had finally convinced Cat to use it after practicing with it enough to display appropriate proficiency with the standard Root weapon. They both rushed at Kakashi, occasionally crossing their paths trying to confuse him. When they finally reached within striking distance of him, Kai took the lead and went for an underhand vertical slash only to stop as soon as Kakashi took out his katana to block and jumped over the man. Kakashi turned to look at Kai landing at his other side, only for Yomu to appear in his now blind-spot and swing at his head with his staff. With reflexes built by years of experience, Kakashi was able to duck the blow at the last second. He planted both hands on the ground and lifted both his legs, spinning them around to kick at both his opponents. Kai and Yomu were able to block the kick, Yomu with his bō staff and Kai by crossing his arms in front of him, yet they were still forced back with the impact of the kick.

Shrugging off the numbness in his arms, Kai ran to circle Kakashi, taking out three kunai, throwing them his way, and running right after them. At the same time, Yomu ran straight at Kakashi, wanting to present a double-front for him, but also not wanting to stand directly on the other side of the projectiles in case Kakashi dodged them.

Kakashi must have understood the position they wanted to leave him, so he sheathed his katana and jumped straight in the air, pulling out four shurikens in each hand and sending half of them at Yomu and half at Kai.

Coming up with an idea, Kai let the shuriken hit him straight on. He knew, from the previous pause Kakashi did when Boar introduced them, that he considered Kai to be too young, so he knew that Kakashi would be worried when he saw that his shuriken had sunk home. Yomu saw the slight hesitation in Kakashi's posture as he was coming down and used the opportunity to hit a round-house kick to Kakashi's ribs, sending him flying.

Kai had delayed the use of the Kawarimi as much as possible to give the impression the shuriken had actually hit him and Kakashi became too worried with having possibly just killed a child to look past Kai's ploy. _'Hum, that will make him take us a little more serious,'_ Kai thought as Kakashi stood up and brushed himself off. He really wanted to see Kakashi pull some serious moves.

"I see," Kakashi said, looking at the perforated log where Kai had been last. "I have underestimated you both due to your age."

"It won't happen again." Kakashi rushed at Yomu first, pulling his katana out and going through a flurry of thrusts and slashes that Yomu was barely able to parry with his staff.

Kai, seeing this, dashed after Kakashi while throwing at kunai at his head. Kakashi sidestepped the projectile and caught it with his left hand. Using the same kunai, Kakashi blocked Kai's slash with his tantō and immediately went down to swipe at his legs while at the same time dodging Yomu's swing at his head.

Kai backflipped out of Kakashi's kick and brought his tantō to a defensive position in front of him. Yomu was again engaging Kakashi with his bō and was having problems maintaining the weapon in his hand. Kakashi, although holding back, was still several times stronger than both of them. Kai once again rushed at the pair determined to help his friend. He got close to them just in time to stop Kakashi's next swing with his tantō, as Yomu's bō was sent flying out of his hands by the Anbu's previous blow.

Yomu took out two kunai in a reverse grip and followed up on Kai's strikes as best as he could, trying to find any openings in Kakashi's defense. Kai jabbed with his tantō at what seemed to be an opening in Kakashi's left side and realized too late that Kakashi had left it on purpose. Kakashi stepped in on his thrust, hooking his left arm on Kai's sword arm and elbowing him in the mask. As soon as his elbow connected, he pivoted on his right foot and swung his left at Yomu, hitting the boy on the chest with the back of his ankle.

Kai groaned, picking himself off the ground. Yomu doing the same not far to his left, rubbing at his soon-to-be-bruised chest. Kai's mask was cracked, but he was glad it didn't fall off and Kakashi saw his face. He had always wondered how the Anbu masks stayed in place when in the anime the characters would simply position the mask on their faces, not bothering to strap it on or anything. It turned out that the masks had built-in chakra receivers and dispensers on its borders. The mask absorbed a minuscule amount of chakra and it automatically dispensed it onto the skin again, gluing it to the wearer's face.

"You have great teamwork and use each other efficiently to distract your opponent while the other attacks from the blind spot," Kakashi said breaking down their fighting style. A glimpse of his battle brilliancy Kai saw on the anime coming out. Kakashi hadn't been sparring with them for more than fifteen minutes and he had already figured out the way Kai and Yomu always fought when they went two on one on someone.

"The trick with the Kawarimi was well-executed too. You knew I would underestimate you, didn't you?" Kakashi asked turning to Kai, who just nodded in return.

"Good job, then." He turned to Yomu then and pointed at his staff. "You are also very good with that. Keep practicing with it and work on using more fluid movements, not just the ones in Katas. That goes for both of you, with either the tantō or the bō. Katas are very good, but your movements become predictable if you rely solely on them."

"Hai!" Kai and Yomu exclaimed at the same time and readied themselves for another bout.

(Back to 1st Person POV)

"Ughhhh" I groaned into the pillow. As soon as we got back from training with Kakashi Yomu and I had thrown ourselves into our respective beds and hadn't gotten up since. We had gone for another four rounds after the first, and Kakashi had bested us in each of them. Not only that, but it turned out that Anbu Kakashi and Jōnin Kakashi were very different from how they treated their students. One thing I criticized Kakashi for during the anime was that he had never _really_ driven Team 7 as much as he should have. Well, he drove us alright. By the end of the fifth bout Yomu and I could barely stand up, and Kakashi hadn't even worked a sweat. I had massively underestimated the difference between a fully trained ninja and two green kids like us.

After his first moment of hesitancy, Kakashi didn't present any more openings. At least not one that we could see, he wasn't all-powerful of course. The only time we did find openings it ended up with one of us on the ground, regretting being too overeager.

It was a great learning experience though. I could confidently say that Kakashi was stronger than Boar, Cat, or any other shinobi we had practiced with. Even though they all held back against us, it was clear Kakashi was the superior ninja. A true genius, to be better than training machines like the Root Anbu members.

Kakashi corrected several of our mistakes. Sometimes after the bout had ended, sometimes in the middle of it. Our forms, stances, postures, and moves. Nothing went by uncriticized. Even the way Yomu held his bō and my irregular use of chakra throughout the body, Kakashi made sure to let us know our shortcomings so we could work on them. Frankly, he had more of a real shinobi teacher vibe now than he had in the show.

Kakashi left right after our practice when a messenger hawk summoned him. He probably had to go on a mission or something like that. If

Something weird happened though. Kakashi had been about to declare the end of our practice session when a messenger hawk summoned him. Alright, nothing unusual about that, but the thing is, there were dozens of messenger hawks in the sky. You could see them flying around in the distance, all throughout Konoha. Something was happening. Something big, I just didn't know what.

(3rd Person Danzo POV)

Danzo laid in his bedroll thinking about what happened earlier that day. He had sent two squads of Anbu to ambush and assassinate Hiruzen on his way to meet the Daimyo, only to be betrayed by Kakashi and have his attempt foiled by the boy who had been disguised as the Third. Hiruzen had caught him red-handed sitting on the Hokage chair, and he had to go through the embarrassment of being forgiven by his former teammate.

 _'Tch, forgiving me like this. He is still as soft as ever,'_ Danzo thought. This softness would kill Hiruzen one day, and Danzo had told him just that. If their parts had been reversed, Danzo would have had no mercy in dealing with him. Just more proof that Hiruzen is not right for the Hokage job.

A soft thud outside his door alerted him of one of his Anbu's presence. "Is that you, Kinoto?" Danzo asked, more for the sake of appearances than anything. He already knew it was him.

"Danzo-sama, there's an urgent matter…" Kinoto trailed off. It was unusual for one of his Root to no be forthcoming with a report. It could only mean that something serious must have happened, and Danzo could already guess what it was.

Danzo got up quickly and donned his usual robes. It was the middle of the night, so only a few Anbu were stationed in strategic positions throughout the underground base. They all bowed to him or went to their knees as he walked purposefully to the center of Root's headquarters. The place he usually addressed the senior members of the Foundation was an open-roofed crossroads of four underground tunnels that connected different wings of Root's base. He came out of the northern entrance while contemplating the situation he been made aware on the way there.

"Hiruzen himself is leading them?" He asked out loud to no one. It only made sense though, Sarutobi must feel responsible for this since it was one of his own students. Danzo had told the man that they needed to lay low for a while, and that the Third was going to make his move as soon as he had proof. Danzo was lucky he had erased all evidence of his dealings with Orochimaru, but he didn't expect this to come so soon.

Now that Orochimaru had to flee the village, his plans would have to be delayed. "Damn him, he's gone too far." Danzo cursed the Snake Sannin. They would still proceed with it though. This would be his trump card in his battle to ascend to the Hokage position. They could make it work even with Orochimaru on the run, he just had to make sure the man got away.

"Kinoe, are you here?" Danzo asked when he reached the cemented center of the crossroads. In a blur, a young brown-haired boy appeared in front of him. He wore the standard Root overshirt atop a navy-blue shirt, complete with a tanto and an Anbu mask.

"And even with that… No, it's because of that, Hiruzen will not be able to kill his student Orochimaru. Just for times like this, we have another secret meeting place." Danzo said to the boy. It would be a difficult mission, but this one was another of his aces, and the boy had been groomed to be loyal and had proved to be so.

"Kinoe, go on ahead and wait for Orochimaru," Danzo had too much at stake in this. If Hiruzen got to Orochimaru first, not only could he not go forward with his plan, but Orochimaru might sell him out for leniency. "He must not be captured by the Leaf. At any cost," Danzo reiterated. "Go!"

* * *

 **A/N:** _This chapter had the first fight scene I ever wrote and I'm still not sure I like it. I doubt I will change it, but I want to make the future ones more energetic and dynamic. Let me know what you think of it and the rest of the chapter. Also, feel free to tell me about anything you want to see in the future here or any suggestions._


	4. Chapter 4

_**Summary:**_ _Dying and getting thrown into another world can be really liberating, especially if it's the world of Naruto. Just imagine the possibilities, with the future knowledge you would have to boot, they are truly endless. Or so you thought. A story in which our OC has to fix the Naruto timeline but ends up becoming a little too preoccupied trying to survive one of the deadliest destinies in the Naruto world._

 _ **Disclaimer:**_ _I do not own Naruto._

 _ **Warning:**_ _Rated T for violence, language, and suggestive adult themes._

* * *

Chapter 4

(3rd Person Kai POV)

Kai finished going through the correct hand-seals with much-practiced speed and, just as the three demon-masked shinobi jumped from their perch on the tree in front of his group, he slapped both hands on the ground and murmured, " **Earth Release: Swamp of the Underworld (Doton: Yomi Numa).** "

Instead of landing on the grassed earth of the clearing, the shinobi found themselves waist deep in mud, only to be quickly peppered with dozens of shuriken and kunai by the rest of Kai's squad. Boar, the squad's captain, and the two other Root Anbu quickly finished off the assailants but remained on guard nonetheless.

"Stay sharp," Boar whispered beside Kai. "These were just their scouts. We keep going until we reach Point A."

The three members nodded to their captain and moved to follow him ahead. The small team chose to keep to the ground as they ran. The woods around them were different from the ones surrounding Konoha, and branch hopping would be near impossible with all the foliage that covered them.

"Don't use your radios, they might intercept our signal. Squads 2 and 3 should be in place now." Boar took out his tantō and looked back at Kai as he ran at the front of the group, checking to see if the young ninja was ready for what was coming. At Kai's nod, Boar murmured, "Let's spring this trap, then."

According to the pre-mission briefing they had, the remnants of the Prajñā group, a Land of Woods shinobi force that recently betrayed Konoha during a diplomatic mission would ambush them here. They were fed false information by Root's spy network on the nature of their mission and how many Leaf's Anbu would be going through their territory. Danzo believed that they would be tempted to avenge the part of their group slaughtered by Kakashi and Itachi and the best way to deal with them so that they wouldn't be a bother in the future was to walk right into the lion's den and spring the trap.

Standard procedure for Root. Even if most of their missions were still not as shady as they were after the Foundation was officially disbanded, they still dealt with most of Konoha's unsavory businesses. Cleanups like this were routine for them.

Although, Kai knew that even if this mission had actually happened off screen in the show, the Prajñā group would not be completely destroyed, and they would resurface to attack Danzo on his way to the Five Kage summit in the future. Not that he planned for Danzo to live long enough, of course.

Not five minutes of running later Kai's squad arrived at Point A, a spacious clearing surrounded by thick bushes and a single boulder to their left. They were immediately met by twenty or so Prajñā's that formed a semi-circle around them as they pulled their weirdly shaped kunai from their pockets. Even through their masks, Kai could see the smug looks the Land of Woods' Anbu group were giving them.

"You have to be either an idiot or very audacious to come through our country after what Konoha did." Demon-masked shinobi #1 sneered at the small squad. No reason to find out his name when he would be choking on his own blood in no time. It was funny how he rationalized it though. Kai knew that it was their group that initiated hostilities during the scroll exchange, and the guy probably knew too, but it was basic human psychology to blame others for your shortcomings, especially when those shortcomings came in the form of dead comrades. Not that Konoha had not been ready for a double-crossing by them, far from it. Danzo had expertly predicted or at least taken precautions in the events of the meeting going south and had sent two of his best operatives to deal with it.

Kakashi and Itachi had made quick work of them and reported that the Land of Wood shinobi were not that impressive. Hence why Kai and Yomu were sent to this excursion. It would be their first real mission for Root, even though they weren't full graduates yet. Thankfully. If they were, it would mean one not being alive to be sent on a mission.

Regarding Kakashi, if Kai remembered correctly, Danzo would already know at this point that he was responsible for the failed attempt in the Third's life but he still kept the Sharingan wielder in his pocket. He knew he was a double spy for Hiruzen, but he had not outlived his usefulness yet, and as in the show, he would probably make a move on Kakashi's life and eye soon.

The tall, cloak clad Prajñā ninja was a talker apparently and continued blabbering on for a good five minutes. He was clearly not familiar with Shinobi Rule 25 of not showing emotions and was especially dense when it came to looking underneath the underneath. Did he not once thought to himself: 'Huh, these Anbu have been listening to me for a few minutes now. Why are they not either a) Attacking, or b) running for their lives.'

The man finally ended his pathetic speech with a roar of 'I WILL KILL YOU' and charged head-on, soon being followed by his comrades. He had been a wonderful host since Squad 3 was slightly late to arrive and his rambling had served as the perfect time-waster. So, as soon as the Prajñā group rushed at Kai's squad, a hail of shuriken and kunai flew at their right flank and a large fireball at their left, cutting down their numbers by a quarter. As the dust created by the fireball settled, the once outnumbering Prajñās found themselves surrounded on all sides by Anbu Root.

With a simple nod by Boar, the Konoha shinobi engaged the encircled enemies.

Small skirmishes started happening throughout the clearing with kunai and shuriken flying liberally at both sides as the Anbu tried to pick and isolate their targets. Ninjas clashed their weapons and sparks illuminated the cloudless night sky.

Kai had stayed on the sidelines as the battles began, waiting for a distracted enemy whom he could engage as planned. He knew that as a 6yo, he couldn't possibly compete in strength against most grown-up opponents, so Boar had told him to hold back and use his small stature to blindside the enemies when an opportunity arose.

Seeing just that, Kai rushed behind a Prajñā and brought his tantō in a slash that hamstrung the masked ninja, giving Tiger the opening she needed to finish the job with a swipe to the kneeling ninja's throat. Kai received a nod from Tiger and quickly made for his next target, this time going for a kill shot on an enemy's kidney after ducking under the man's kunai slash. He scanned around the battlefield for more potential victims and spotted Yomu on the other side. The boy was being pinned down by an enemy, who then stabbed him in the heart. Yomu's image exploded in fragments as he appeared behind the man, bringing his bō staff down on the unsuspecting Prajñā's head. ' _You got to love Genjutsu,'_ Kai grinned, watching the scene unfold.

At Yomu's side, Cat was dealing with two ninjas, parrying and dancing in between them. She had the grace and dexterity of her namesake and her mastery of the wind element was unrivaled in Root's roster, being taught by Danzo himself on the craft. Her chakra enhanced tantō made quick work of both ninjas, decapitating one and bisecting the other with a single slash each. On the opposite side of Yomu and Cat, Kai saw Boar and Dog double-teaming five Prajñās at the same time with near perfect teamwork. They would bait, retreat, counter, and repeat, all while covering each other and creating openings for the other to take advantage of.

Deciding to support his two superior officers, Kai started circumventing the clearing avoiding fights and skirmishes all along. He was skulking past the boulder on the edge of the field when a solid rock spear surged from the ground to skewer him. Only because of his own earth affinity and the sudden spike of chakra in the ground was he able to dodge it, rolling to the side and away from the boulder. Kai came up from his roll and was surprised to see Demon-masked shinobi #1 facing him from atop the boulder. How the man that was at the front and center of his group ended up on the edges of the battle Kai didn't know. Though if he were to guess, he would say that the coward was hiding or even trying to escape, only stopping because he saw what could be easy prey for his pathetic revenge.

Kai didn't have a lot of time to think though, because the once monologuer was jumping from the boulder and slapping his hands together in the Snake seal, in what would most likely be another Earth Release jutsu. Not waiting to see if he was right or not, Kai went through his own set of seals and for the second time that night slapped both hands on the ground. " **Earth Release: Earth-Style Wall (Doton: Doryūheki)** "

His wall had barely any time to go up before being bombarded with rock boulders the size of an adult's head. Using the dust cloud as a cover, Kai came out running from one side of the wall, only for a couple of seconds later another Kai appear rushing at the Prajñā ninja from the other side.

The older ninja smirked at him and at the last second switched his aim from the first to the second Kai, letting three shurikens fly from his left hand. "That cheap trick won't work on me, brat!"

The man's aim was dead on and would have skewered Kai if not for them going through him like he was an illusion. Demon-masked shinobi #1 clucked his tongue realizing the first one was the real one and the other the actual Bunshin. He quickly brought his right hand up to block Kai's overhead swing coming from the other side with a kunai, only there was nothing to block as Kai's image went through the Prajñā nin, dissipating in contact.

"Wher-GUH!" was all the man could utter as Kai burst up from the ground and impaled the Land of Woods' shinobi from the groin all the way to his right shoulder with his tantō. "That's for making us suffer through your shitty speech," Kai said, standing just outside the hole he came out of with both hands on his weapon's hilt. It was ingrained into him to go for a killing blow when fighting, so Kai made sure to sever both the man's femoral and subclavian in his move, practically guaranteeing the kill. Anatomy was his favorite theoretical subject he learned at Root, and he could confidently say that Zabuza was being over simplistic when he narrowed down the kill points on the body to eight while performing his silent killing technique on Team 7. There were just so many ways to kill someone, it was a wonder people weren't dying left and right going through their daily routines.

Kai pulled his tantō off the man and swiftly stabbed down on his heart to confirm the kill. This world may not have the technology of his old one, but they did have chakra. Depending on the medic nin, even 'fatal' wounds could be healed if treated immediately, so a poke to the heart or brain was always encouraged. Not that the man was going to get said treatment then and there, but it was good to get in the habit. Kai inspected his blade after finishing the job and was glad to be wearing gloves when he noticed the excrements and other fluids apart from blood on its length. ' _And that's what I get for stabbing someone in the groin,'_ Kai thought with a grimace, moving to clean his tantō on Demon-masked shinobi #1's clothes.

Looking up from his first field-kill, Kai saw that the rest of Root Anbu was finishing off the last Prajñās that didn't have the grace to die in battle like gentlemen and insisted on groaning and moaning on the ground. Some people were just so impolite. He also noticed that, thankfully, none of his comrades had fallen. At least he thought he was thankful for it. With the obvious exception of Yomu, and maybe Boar and Cat, Kai didn't know if he would care if someone else on Root were to die on a mission with him. Sure, they were his allies, so he wouldn't want them to die on the field, but that might be just because it would diminish the chances of completing a mission. He also didn't have much out-of-the-job contact with any other Root member at the base. Or none, really. At least for the conditioned ones, there was no such thing as a holiday, so they were always on the job and conversation was to be kept at a minimum. He was trained by others besides Boar and Cat, but that didn't happen often and substitute teachers were rarely the same.

'Dog isn't that bad of a guy,' Kai thought as he made his way to where Boar was motioning the Konoha ninjas to gather. Dog had made a semi-joke on the way to this mission. He had said something about the First Hokage being the godfather of the Land of Woods and whatnot. Kai wasn't sure, it could be a simple historical fact that Hashirama had actually created the forests of the area with his Mokuton, but it also might have been a joke about the First's jutsu. And Kai had to hope, right? ' _Then again, no one laughed,'_ he rubbed his chin, trying to figure out the nuances of a failed joke. ' _Of course they didn't, they're Root. DUH. God, I'm losing my social skills'_

The Root shinobi huddled up under an ancient looking oak by the eastern edge of the clearing and the three pre-assigned scouts were sent out to secure the perimeter. As this mission's leader, Boar stood at the center of the circle of kneeling shinobi and didn't waste any time in formalities.

"Squad leaders, report," he ordered in a low voice so only those nearby would hear him.

Squad 2's leader, Tiger, was the first to answer. "Squad 2 found no resistance on the way to Point B and suffered no casualties during the melee," she said succinctly. The three other members of Tiger's squad all nodded in agreement and she got the same acknowledgment from Boar. He turned to Cat then, leader of Squad 3, who explained the reason for their late arrival.

"Squad 3 was met by three hostiles while on route to Point C. One was downed and two manage to escape. Since arriving at the location on time was the primary mission, Yomu hit the two shinobi with Genjutsu suggestions to return to their base and I sent Tamaki to trail them while the rest of us continued to Point C."

Kai turned to Yomu and nodded happily beneath his mask at him. He felt like a proud mother hen, even though Yomu was supposedly older than him. The boy turned his almost perfect chakra control into his main weapon, becoming an exceptional Genjutsu user. He had also been taken under Cat's wing when it came to elemental manipulation, using it to sharpen his tantō like her and, weirdly, his bō staff as well since he refused to give up its use. He said the weapon would be as much a bludgeon as it would be a blade when he mastered his primary affinity. Yomu had even begun training in the medical arts, and, though he only just started on it, already showed promise. If Kai would compare him to someone, skills wise of course, it would be with Kabuto. They shared much of the same skill set and fighting style, with Yomu being a little more physical than him. Kabuto was, obviously, still miles ahead without any doubt. Like it or not, he was mentioned to be almost on Kakashi's level during the invasion.

Coming out of his stupor, Kai caught Tamaki clearing his throat as if asking permission to speak, getting a nod from Cat and a grunt from Boar as his answer. "Mhm, Tamaki reporting, sir. Tamaki followed the targets as ordered but after about four minutes the suggestion must have worn off and the enemy ninjas were able to lose Tamaki."

He had, obviously, a bit of an… odd speech pattern. Tamaki was truly an anime character, always speaking of himself in the third person. Frankly, Kai thought he was entertaining and a breath of fresh air, since even if he didn't want to, Tamaki just sounded silly. "The targets were more used to the terrain than Tamaki, so Tamaki decided to come back to the assigned location. Tamaki also placed traps all the way back, in case they decided to turn on Tamaki and the others."

Boar shrugged at the new information, "It doesn't matter. The mission was to weaken and scare the Prajñā group enough so they wouldn't retaliate in the near future. We also can't go any deeper into enemy territory and we don't want to be caught by the Land of Woods' regulars with a bunch of dead Prajñās around us." He pointed to the field of corpses to the groups left. "Leave the bodies though. The Land of Woods needs to know who did it, but not have enough evidence to cause a diplomatic fallout. We are just here to send a message."

Christmas cards weren't a big thing in this world. Messages came on either scrolls or dead bodies. Kai referred to it as the dual-pronged diplomacy of the Elemental Nations. It had a nice ring to it.

"Alright, call up the scouts," Boar ordered, getting up and gesturing with his right hand beside his head, circling it thrice. "Mission complete. Move out"

xXx

Even with five-minute water breaks every two hours, it took the Root Anbu operatives the rest of the night to arrive in Konoha. The early sunrise tinged the sky an angry orange, illuminating the Hokage Mountain from the side. It was a beautiful sight. ' _A sight worth protecting,'_ Kai decided. He knew that Konoha was not all flowers and roses, Naruto's childhood being a prime example of that. Kai understood the psychology behind it, sure. It was easier for people to blame someone, even a child, for what happened. What good was it to direct their grief over the death and destruction of that night on a creature that, in their minds, would never understand their rancor. It didn't make it better that it was well known by the adult population that the Kyuubi was sealed inside Naruto. It was no excuse, of course, but it didn't mean that the villagers were inherently evil. They were ignorant and scared. Ignorant of the concept of 'the scroll and the kunai,' and scared of a power they couldn't fathom, much less understand.

Despite its faults, being subjected to the life he lived now, Kai knew that Hashirama and Madara's dream must live on. And after watching the lives and feats of shinobi like Hatake Sakumo, Uchiha Itachi, Namikaze Minato, and other Konoha heroes, he understood what drove them and other men and women to give their lives for the Leaf, even without ever living in Konoha proper. When he looked upon the peaceful village like this, he felt it too. It was a feeling deep seeded in his gut. Being in this world, living as a real shinobi, it was hard not to recognize it for what it was. The Will of Fire. The spiritual heritage of the village. The desire to protect those you love, to fight against all odds, to protect the 'King'. Define it as you will, it was what Kai was almost sure he was feeling. Almost.

Thinking about this always brought questions and ideas that he had been fidgeting with in his mind for a long time now. It had been years since he came to that world, years of being in the Foundation, years of being a shinobi. What was it all for? There must be a reason for him being sent there. Was he sent there for this, to protect the village? To feel the Will of Fire and pass it on to the next generation? That all sounded rather vague for Kai, and it wasn't as if other shinobi in the village didn't have it already. And why would the village need protection? Throughout the whole show Konoha went through some tough times, sure, and lots of people died, but the people of the Leaf always bounced up and kept going. Naruto and the others repeatedly came out on top. Why then, was he there? What was his role in the big picture of the village, or even the whole Narutoverse…?

xXx

"How are we going to find _one_ crate of masks in the middle of all of this?"

"No reason complaining, Kai," Yomu offered. They stood just inside the doors of one of Root's storage houses, a place roughly the size of a classroom, which was probably what it was meant to be but was filled to the brim with boxes, crates, and overall ninja equipment. "Danzo-sama asked Boar who asked us to find it. So we find it."

Kai sagged and grumbled what sounded like a 'yes, yes' before starting perusing through the boxes right in front of them. "You would think that an organization like ours would at least be organized… I mean, look at all this junk," Kai said, picking up a pile of scrolls that almost crumbled in his hands.

Yomu dusted the front of a crate revealing a piece of writing with the Kanjis for 'armament,' "At least they are labeled," Yomu tapped the crate with a knuckle, then noticed that from that pile it was the only one with any identification. "Well, some of them are…"

"Whatever, let's just find the damned thing," Kai relented. He pointed to the other side of the room to the last column in the last row, all the way in the corner of the old classroom. "Start there at the back, and I'll start in the opposite corner. We'll meet in the middle."

Yomu dropped a mock salute, banging his closed fist to his chest, and turned to do as Kai suggested. "Hai, sir!"

Twenty minutes in and no masks were found by the pair. The most interesting thing Kai had found was a box of some weirdly designed kunais that probably didn't work out too well, seeing that most of them were rusted and chipped on its corners, a series of scrolls about the era of the warring states, and funny enough, a clown costume. ' _There has to be one hell of a story behind this thing,'_ Kai thought, pressing his fingers on the red nose that came with it.

On the other side of the room, Yomu had finally found a box that might contain what they were looking for. The large-ish wooden box was tucked inside an old dresser, beneath two crates of scrolls of god knows what. The label read, 'uniforms', so Yomu thought it was worth checking out since masks were technically a part of Root's attire.

He pulled it out of the dresser, making sure not to drop the scroll crates on the ground lest they break and he makes a mess. The wooden box stood out from all the others in the room, another reason that Yomu had for looking in it. While all the boxes, crates, and piles of junk in that place were covered in dust and mold, that box seemed relatively clean. As if it had been recently put there, or just constantly moved.

He wrestled with the box for a few minutes before he was able to pop it open. At first glance, the contains were just some pieces of clothing, not what he was looking for. What left him intrigued though, was that they were all red, with a pile of brown flak jackets sitting on the side. He took one of the uniforms out and inspected it further. "This looks like a standard Iwagakure uniform," Yomu realized, noticing the two shades of red that made the outfit, and that it only had one sleeve.

"But, why would..." he trailed off, remembering the conversation he had with Kai almost two years ago, and what happened the night his village was burned.

xXx

" _I came here from an orphanage, you know, just like you,"_ he had said, starting his tale while still looking at the ceiling. " _I still have memories from before that though. I remember living with my mother and my twin sister in a small village by the border between the Land of Fire and the Land of Fields, where Kusagakure(Grass) is._

 _It also burned like yours. Every single house was torched, and no adults lived to see another day, including my mom. I still have no idea why ninja would do that. We had nothing of value and didn't pose a threat to anyone. Not only that, but Konoha and Kusa were not at war with each other or with anyone else, so it just doesn't make any sense."_

xXx

 _His house was burning. Smoke covered his vision and only his grasp on his mother's skirt kept him moving. They crawled out of their living room, reaching the main hall on the way to the front door, the only possible way out now. The rear part of their lovely two-story house had caved in and access to the back door was nigh impossible. Yomu could hear the house groaning, the wooden ceiling was already on fire and at any moment it could fall down on top of them as it had happened in the kitchen._

 _His mother, carrying his passed out sister in one arm, tried her best to calm him, but he could see that she was as scared as he was. "We're going to be alright okay sweetie, just hold on to momma," she assured him, coughing at every other syllable._

 _They finally made their way to the front door, it was still in one piece but the fire surrounded it almost fully. Yomu's mother reached for the doorknob but recoiled her arm when she touched the metal handle, part of her skin left on it where it had burned her hand. She looked at her two children, covered in soot and ashes, and once again grabbed the handle. With a grunt, she pulled the door open and rushed out of the house with her kids. Her right hand almost burned to the bone. She didn't care. As long as she got them out of there alive._

 _Outside, it wasn't just their house, but the whole town was up in flames and people ran on the streets with their loved ones or with their last possessions in tow. His mother ran after them, toward the town's eastern gate. The closest one to their house. The flames would be contained by the walls, and they would be safe once outside them._

 _Yomu could see his mom's hand charred and lifeless at her side as she ran. The woman was gritting her teeth as she looked back at him every time they rounded a corner. His sister weighted her other arm, but the adrenaline pushed her to keep going, to only rest when her children were safe. They finally came to the main street leading to the gates, the people around them looked hopeful with the exit now on sight. Until they started dropping._

 _From both sides, red-clad men jumped from the rooftops, showering the people with kunai and shuriken. Left and right of him people started dying. Their blood spewing high when one of the ninjas slashed their throats with similar kunais to the ones they threw. Yomu could see the parents of two of his friends that lived down the street from his house being cut down. The children kept running and the ninjas were letting them go. His mother must have seen this because she shoved his sister in his arms and wrapped them both in a hug._

 _She had hidden them just inside a dead end alley, and she held them for as long as she felt was safe until she whispered to him, "Yomu, I need you to do something for momma, okay?"_

 _He nodded numbly at her. She was kneeling in front of him now, petting his and his sisters head, a reassuring smile on her face. "I need you to take your sister and run as fast as you can and don't stop until you are both safe."_

" _Mom... no, please!" He pleaded. Yomu wasn't stupid, he knew what she was planning to do. He knew she wanted to sacrifice herself for their safety, but he couldn't imagine living without her. And he couldn't take care of his sister by himself. He wasn't strong enough._

 _His mother cupped his cheek and kissed him on the forehead like she always did. "I know you can do this Yomu, you're strong just like your father was," the mention of his father filling the boy with pride and determination. The man had been his hero since he could remember. He had never met him, of course. He had died before he was born. But his mother would always tell him stories about his father, a simple blacksmith, that had died protecting his wife and unborn children from raiders. "Now go! Don't stop running, and don't look back... no matter what happens"_

 _He cast one last look at his mother, knowing what would happen to her, but having to do it nonetheless, and ran out of the alley towards the gates. He knew he shouldn't have, but as he weaved around the debris and the dead bodies on the street, he turned to look at his mother. He couldn't contain the tears as he saw a ninja land right behind his mother, who was looking at him with a sad smile on her face and plunge a short sword through her heart. As his mother's body fell lifeless to the ground, he took in every detail he could of her killer. From his red one-sleeved clothes, his brown blood-soaked flak jacket, his sword, and lastly, his mask. His Anbu mask._

Yomu had to grip the edge of the dresser not to fall. His knees were wobbling beneath him, and his mind was running a mile a minute coming to terms with what he just remembered. A memory that he had buried in the confines of his mind. Who would want to recall the scene of your mother being cut down after all? Sure, the overall memory of him running away with his sister, leaving his mother behind had always been there. Taunting him, calling him weak. A constant reminder of his lack of power, of his inability to protect the person who loved him the most in the world. It had only gotten worse after his sister died. He felt like he had failed his mother once again. Failed to do the one thing she entrusted him with.

All of those thoughts were hidden under the mask of the overly positive, cheerful Yomu. Even here, in the hell on earth that was Root, he kept his buoyant veil as much as he could. It was more of a way to lie to himself than to others. And it wasn't a total lie either. He had been upbeat and carefree before his life went up in flames, always the jokester out of all the towns' kids, while his sister had been decisive and steadfast in everything she did. Throughout her young life, she had been like that. Determined to do things, to make a difference, even with her frail body... even after their mother's death. She was the strong one out of the two.

It was when she died that Yomu's nature had truly shifted. He could only be his childhood self when around his best friend. The other times, his personality was a total lie. The enthusiastic but prodigious Root trainee hiding the hate-filled, self-loathing monster he had become.

And now… this. It wasn't enough that they had beaten them day in day out. It wasn't enough that they brainwashed, tortured, and conditioned them. Not enough that Root had destroyed whatever chance they had of a normal life. Not enough that they had killed his sister. Bludgeoned her. No, not for Danzo and his sick ideals. He had done that too. Root were the ones that were going to the villages on the edges of the Land of Fire dressed as Iwa ninja and destroying them, killing the adults and leaving the children to be rescued by Konoha shinobi. Being in the Land of Fire the children would, obviously, be sent to orphanages there. And there… there they could be taken to Root, adding to Danzo's personal mindless army. He was the cause of all this. His whole life… his town, his mother, his sister, everything.

Yomu couldn't hold it in right then. Not after bottling up his true emotions for so long, and now this revelation. Yomu roared as he went to his knees and punched the ground repeatedly.

"AHHHRRRRR!"

"Yomu?!" Kai yelled across the room, already rushing to his friend's side. An attack at a Root base was rare, almost impossible, but not unprecedented. They had angered many people and organizations through the years, it was plausible that one or another had come to retaliate. He could feel it in the air too. The killing intent was oozing from where Yomu was raging. He ran past row after row, hurdling boxes and crates. When he stopped on the row Yomu was he saw his friend with bloody hands on the ground, screaming and sobbing all at once. His face contorted with grief and hatred.

Kai got to his side and slowly kneeled beside him, putting a hand to his shoulder to comfort him. He supposed that this could happen to anyone in their line of work, especially to someone as young as Yomu. There were almost no red flags, however. What could have made Yomu snap like this? Kai knew of Yomu's true feelings. His contempt towards Danzo was even worse than Kai's, with good reason too. It had been just a few days since they last talked about their intention to end Danzo's tyranny, and whenever they planned for that, Yomu showed his true colors. Sure, he was a little messed up, but so was Kai at this point. You could barely be a shinobi without having some kind of problem, much less a Root shinobi. But they had it under control. Their hatred was directed towards a goal, disciplined.

To get to this point… something must have triggered it. Something big.

"Yomu, are you alright?" Obviously not. That's not the right question. Kai knew better. "What happened? One minute you're okay and then you started yelling…"

His cries had stopped, but Yomu still shook, his fists curled into a bloody mess as he turned to face his friend.

"It was them…"

"What do you mean, Yomu?" Kai asked, shaking his friend lightly on the shoulder when he didn't answer. "I won't understand until you tell me. Please, concentrate, and tell me why are you like this? What happened?"

"Look!" He pointed accusingly to the box of Iwa shinobi uniforms. "They did it, Kai… from the beginning, it was all them. _Him_." Kai moved around Yomu and reached for the pile of crimson cloth on the floor. He inspected it just as Yomu had, noticing the different tonalities, the single long-sleeve, and the stack of brown flak jackets on the side. For a minute he tried to puzzle out what had happened, putting the facts side by side in his mind; Iwa's random attacks on the border; adults being killed and children being spared; the rise in orphaned children throughout the Land of Fire; Root's 'rescue' missions to 'help' children from orphanages; and finally, finding Iwa uniforms in a Root base and Yomu's break down after finding them. Separate, they made no sense. You would never think of it. No one would. But put them together… bring the facts side by side and you have a genius trafficking scheme that is almost impossible to trace it back to Root. Even if they were caught red-handed at one of these villages by Konoha nin they could never place them under Danzo's command. The shinobi that Danzo used for these incursions were probably no ones. They had no history, no family, no provable allegiances. They couldn't talk under torture even if they wanted due to the cursed seal, and if in a worst case scenario they brought a Yamanaka to read their minds, they would just blow themselves up as Danzo did after his fight with Sasuke.

The children from the villages were taken to orphanages around Konoha and in the countryside of the Land of Fire. There, Danzo could pick and choose the candidates for future Root agents. Repeating the cycle of shinobi with no history, no family, no provable allegiances. He could build an army of replenishable mindless ghosts that answered to him, and to him only. It was much like Kabuto's story, taken from his orphanage to work for Root as a spy since he was a child. A child with no identity. The only person that could have known him for who he was being brainwashed to remember him as someone else.

It was genius. Revolting, sickening, but manically genius. And it was happening right under the nose of the Hokage. That was one reason Kai had never liked the Third all that much when he watched the anime. For all his strength, intellect, and kindness, the Professor was extremely susceptible to turning a blind eye to the wrongdoings of those he is emotionally attached to. Orochimaru and Danzo being the prime examples. Imagine all that could have been avoided if only Hiruzen had dealt with them both as he should have. All the children, families, and clans that Orochimaru corrupted and killed would have lived. All the orphans, the villages, and innocents saved from Danzo's schemes. He didn't hate the man per se, but it didn't help that he was now a living consequence of the Third's failures.

Kai was brought out of his musings when Yomu got up and started walking away from him. "Yomu!" He called out to his friend, already having an idea of what he was up to.

"I'm going to kill him, Kai," Yomu seethed, glaring holes at whatever passed by his gaze. "He ruined my life! My town, my mother and my sister… he destroyed everything. I'M GOING TO KILL HIM NOW!" He snapped, loud enough to be heard if someone was outside.

He had to stop this. Kai knew Yomu would want to do that after finding this out. He wanted to too. Even without having any emotional attachments to the village he was from, it was the same story. Iwa shinobi coming and burning the place, leaving the children alive and killing most of the adults. It didn't matter though, there was no point in confronting him now, they would be only throwing their lives away. It was just one more sin on Danzo's ever-growing list, though he knew that emotionally it was not so simple for Yomu. This was the event that disrupted Yomu's whole life. That led to his mother's death and eventually his sister's. It couldn't be easy for him. Kai knew that. But he couldn't let his best friend walk himself to his death. He had to stop him, reason with him. Going unprepared against Danzo would be nothing more than glorified suicide.

Knowing this, Kai ran past his friend that more stumbled than walked, so unhinged he was, and blocked him from leaving the room. "Don't be a fool, Yomu!" Kai pleaded, hands extended to both sides.

"Get out of my way, Kai!" Yomu shoved the smaller boy out of the way and stomped towards the door. "I have to do this… I owe it to them."

Kai couldn't help but think that Yomu was starting to sound just like Sasuke when he talked about Itachi. "I understand you do, but you're not strong enough… not yet. I won't let you go out there and waste your life away!" Kai lunged himself at the boy and tackled him into a wall, pinning Yomu with both of his arms on his collar.

"I need you to snap out of it, Yomu. Don't throw away the life your mother bought you with her sacrifice," Kai said, looking at him in the eyes. "I know you want revenge, I do too, trust me. But if there's one thing I learned being a shinobi is that revenge won't solve it. If you kill Danzo because of it, some Root idolizer is going to think the same way as you and kill you for it. When he does that, I'm going to be forced to kill him as well for killing you. There is no stopping this kind of cycle, Yomu. What Danzo deserves is justice. Justice for your sister, your mother, our villages, all of the children killed during the conditioning, for everything. And he will get it, I promise you. Hell, we promised each other this two years ago, but if you start acting dumb on me you're going to get both of us killed."

Kai realized he was being rather idealistic here, preaching justice in place of revenge, but he had watched his fill of Naruto, he knew that in this world that is exactly what happens. The cycle of hatred — hatred being born to protect love — was an uncontested truth in the shinobi world, and damn it if he was going to add to it.

Yomu's hands that had been previously trying to slap Kai's arms away went slack and the boy regained some sense of control. Kai let go of his collar then, causing Yomu to slide down the wall. He curled himself in a ball and sobbed for a few more minutes — sometimes it was easy to forget this was just an 8yo that had lost everything in his life. Kai decided it was best to let him take his time and let it all out now better than later. "I'm going to keep looking for the masks and fix the mess we made in the back. Don't move from here, 'kay?" He got a trembled nod and went off, leaving his friend alone. Like it or not Yomu was a boy, and if there is one thing boys are famous for is being insecure about crying in front of others. No need to wound his pride now of all times.

Five minutes later, Kai came out from one of the rows holding a crate of Anbu masks on his hands. He noticed Yomu wasn't on the ground anymore but was washing his face with his cantine. Yomu saw Kai coming his way and gave him a lopsided smile from behind his hands. "Thanks, Kai."

"Hn," Kai hummed and answered with a smirk, "Well, if I didn't take care of you, you would be dead thrice over… it's nothing new."

Yomu snorted at the jibe and looked up with a real smile on his face, "Yeah right. Do I need you to remind you of the third survival mission we had last year? You would have starved on the first week if not for me?"

"Hey give me a break okay," Kai said, pouting at his friend, "I did find those mushrooms, it's not my fault they were venomous and I stayed out of commission for a few days."

"Out of commission?" Yomu scoffed, "You were two steps from hell. Do you not remember puking an actual chunk of your stomach?"

"Details, details…"

The two boys laughed companionably until they both quieted down and the mood turned serious again. "No, really," Yomu started, looking a little embarrassed for his outbreak, "Thank you, Kai. I was going to do something really stupid back there."

"You'd have done the same," Kai said. "And don't worry, we'll get him. We really will."

Yomu nodded and Kai could see the flames of determination reignite in Yomu's eyes. "I know, I know. Let's just go now. Boar must be waiting for these masks, and we still have that mission tonight," Yomu said, turning his head questioningly, "Do you know what's it about?"

"No idea," Kai replied. "But if the roster is anything to go by, it's got to be something big."

Yomu harrumphed and the boys walked out of the storage room. Both a little shaken with the revelations even if they didn't show anymore now that they went out in the open, but with renewed spirits to continue on their quest to bring down Danzo.

xXx

(1st Person Kai POV)

The scene in front of me looked uncomfortably familiar. Danzo waited for someone in front of some sort of shrine with two statues flanking it. The statues were huge bronze monstrosities, depicting what I could only compare to Hindu goddesses from my previous world. Both statues had multiple arms — six each — and were the size of the shrine itself, which was a good fifty feet construction.

Danzo had only told us to wait for his signal and to follow his orders after then, and that was what full two squads of Root Anbu were doing. I knew something was going to happen, something important too. I remembered seeing this shrine in the show before, I just couldn't connect it to any event. Not until a raven-haired teenager dropped in front of Danzo in a blur. The boy had short hair and wore all black clothing, including a high collared shirt and a brown tantō harness on his chest.

' _Oh shit, this is Shisui. This is where Shisui loses his right eye! What do I do? I really don't want Shisui to die but… what kind of consequences intervening here will cause? And that's if I can make a difference at all. I would not only change the future drastically if I succeed, which I doubted very much, but if I failed… Danzo wouldn't hesitate to kill me. Hell, no one in the squads beside Yomu would if I tried to sabotage him. No, I can't change this. There has to be a reason for me to be here, and if I change every single detail all my knowledge will be worthless. GOD, I hate myself for thinking someone's life is a detail but… I need to play the long game, even if it means letting a whole bunch of fucked up shit take place. I need to remember that there are bigger threats out there that need dealing with. Danzo is nothing compared to Obito and Black Zetsu, they are the ones that need stopping, and if I want to be able to predict their moves, I need to go with the flow and not alter this, the past.'_

Making my decision, I strained to hear what they were saying. It was barely audible, but since they were the only ones making any noise in miles I could hear their exchange.

"What is it, Danzo-sama?" Shisui asked first, having no idea he was about to be double-crossed. "It's almost time for the assembly to start."

"Even if you use your Doujutsu on Fugaku to get the clan to cooperate, what if the village doesn't change?" Danzo replied with his usual droned voice.

"The Lord Hokage has promised to make it change." Shisui retorted.

"Even if the Third is satisfied, the distrust among the Leaf will not go away." Danzo corrected.

"I realize that. But in time…" Shisui started but was interrupted by Danzo. "Besides, someone who's always suspicious like me will never change. What will you do then?" Danzo asked, not really expecting an answer.

"But, Danzo-sama…"

Man, I felt bad for him. He really wanted the best for both the Uchiha Clan and the village, and he might've succeeded too with the Kotoamatsukami, but Danzo had to put his grimy paws all over him.

"When the time comes, will you use your Kotoamatsukami on me too?" Danzo snapped at him, already dropping his cane. It was about to start.

"I'm…" Danzo lunged at Shisui before he could complete his sentence. "Your Sharingan shall be in my safekeeping!"

Shisui stopped Danzo's lunge for his eyes and from my perspective, it seemed that Danzo had passed out, dropping his head to his chest. "It's only Genjutsu… You'll snap out of it shortly." Shisui explained, turning his back on Danzo.

Experiencing Izanagi is one of the weirdest sensations I have felt in both my lives. It's as if in a millisecond, all of reality shifted. I doubt it's even noticeable if you're not expecting it, but since I knew it was coming I felt the tilt in the world, the slight distortion in everything that ended as soon as it began. It was good that I was feeling it now, I didn't expect Danzo to go down without a fight when Yomu and I finally made our move.

The image of the slacked off Danzo disappeared and he was already in front of Shisui, delivering a massive body shot on him and a sequence of quick punches before he grabbed him by the hair and snagged his right eye off his socket. Shisui lept out of range, clamping the right side of his head, while Danzo showed him his Sharingan losing his light.

"I'm going to take it to replace this eye." The bastard explained before he gave us the signal and we rushed to his side. Yomu and I hadn't learned the Shunshin yet, which was a shame, really — it was perhaps my favorite jutsu in the whole series. It was just so cool how you just flickered out of place or disappeared with a swirl of leaves or a puff of smoke. I really needed to learn it —. Not mastering the technique yet, we were a second late from the others but were in time to hear Danzo's order, "Give me the other one too."

Shisui went ridiculously quickly through a set of hand seals and shot out the Uchiha's classic **Fire Release: Great Fireball Technique (Katon: Gōkakyū no Jutsu).**

I and four other Anbu saw his technique and went through our own set, releasing it together in front of Danzo and the rest of the squads. **Water Release: Wild Water Wave (Suiton: Mizurappa).** Water flooded out of our mouths through the mask and collided with his Katon, resulting in a huge water and steam outburst.

Water was my other affinity, together with Earth. I had really wanted either Wind or Lightning when I did the Chakra Paper test or at least one of them. I was really big on fighting with my tantō, you see, so utilizing one of those natures in conjuncture with a blade would really up my power. I could still master the other elements at some point, of course, and I would certainly try to, but it would come way harder and waste a lot more chakra than my natural affinities, especially for someone like me with such poor Chakra Control. I had been a little peeved for having two of the most defensive Chakra Natures when I was a very offensive fighter, but I found that it actually complemented my style a lot since I now had a good balance of attack and defense.

When the fog of the two jutsus cleared, Shisui had already fled and Danzo ordered us to pursue him for his other eye. The Squad Captain decided to spread out and cover a bigger area of the forest, so we each got a section to look for and were supposed to fire a flare if we managed to find him since he was too strong an opponent for a one on one fight. I knew that we weren't going to find him since in the show he was able to meet with Itachi, so I just wandered around in my section not really making an effort to look for him, but giving the impression that I was if another Root went by me.

As luck would have it though, or bad luck, the cliff with the waterfall on the other side where Itachi last met Shisui was in my section, and I stumbled out of the trees to come face to face with two of the most powerful Uchiha to ever exist.

"One of Danzo's?" Itachi asked, his hands already going to the katana on his back. Apparently, I had gotten there just before Shisui gave him his left eye, so Shisui nodded in agreement with Itachi.

Itachi was about to attack me, his Sharingan already activating, when I put both hands in the air. "Wait!" I pleaded. I had to gamble here. If I tried to fight them, I would die. If I tried to run from them, I would die. If I shot the flair to warn my comrades, I would still die. I probably couldn't last a minute with one of them, much less with both. Not only that, they would find Itachi and Shisui and would have to kill Itachi to cover up for Danzo's actions, and I just couldn't let that happen. The future depended heavily on Itachi's actions. The only thing I could do is talk.

"Not everyone in Root is as devoted to Danzo as you would think," I said, keeping my arms as far from my tantō as possible. "Though I would ask you not to reveal that to anyone."

Both Itachi and Shisui still looked weary, obviously. These were shinobi, top-grade shinobi, they would be suspicious until I proved not to be a threat which would not be an easy task. I couldn't say anything that came from my knowledge or anything that went against the cursed seal, so I could only use information I gathered while in this world that was not compromising for Danzo. Which sucked.

"I can only say I'm sorry for what was done to you, Uchiha Shisui," I said, slowly reaching for my mask and removing it, maybe it would be a little easier for them to trust me if they could see my face. "I would also advise you to finish your business in this area as soon as possible, they might come looking for you here. And good luck for you, Uchiha Itachi."

I turned around then, giving them the opportunity they needed if they wanted to strike at me as another show of trust. "Remember that self-sacrifice is the mark of a true shinobi," I murmured, walking away. "Especially if you are a Konoha shinobi."

I made it to the trees without getting killed, thankfully. Or, I was already at Itachi's or Shisui's Genjutsu mercy, though I tried my best not to look them in the eyes (or eye). The searches in the forest were called off a few hours later, but we still staked out the regular Anbu HQ, the Hokage tower, and the Uchiha district the whole night to intercept Shisui in case he made it back to the village. Which I knew he wouldn't, of course. He would be found by the Uchiha later, together with a suicide note and both eyes missing. Hopefully, Danzo would just think that he took it off and destroyed it himself.

' _Damn, that was close...but man was that cool. I hope this will not come back to bite me in the ass too. At least Itachi is well aware of how much of a snake Danzo is, so I doubt he will rat me out. Wow. Finding out that Danzo was the one behind the village burnings, meeting Itachi and Shisui and not getting killed… As any good Nara can attest, how troublesome. I just want to watch some Master Chef.'_

* * *

 _ **A/N: Little longer chapter this time, but I feel like it came out kind of rushed. Not sure, just not really happy with it.**_


	5. Chapter 5

_**Summary:**_ _Dying and getting thrown into another world can be really liberating, especially if it's the world of Naruto. Just imagine the possibilities, with the future knowledge you would have to boot, they are truly endless. Or so you thought. A story in which our OC has to fix the Naruto timeline but ends up becoming a little too preoccupied trying to survive one of the deadliest destinies in the Naruto world._

 _ **Disclaimer:**_ _I do not own Naruto._

 _ **Warning:**_ _Rated T for violence, language, and suggestive adult themes._

* * *

 **Chapter 5**

(3rd Person Itachi POV)

"So," Kakashi started as Itachi closed the door behind them. "Does that mean you're going to be transferred to Danzo-sama's Anbu?"

"Maybe…" Itachi trailed off. Put that as a certain _yes_ in his books, though.

"Well, try not to get caught up in between the political wrangling of the higher-ups," Kakashi advised, turning to leave with his usual nonchalant attitude despite the serious warning for his former Anbu subordinate.

 _'Alas, I believe it's a little too late for that,'_ Itachi thought. The meeting with the Hokage and the Executive Council had just ended. Kakashi and Itachi had been called to discuss the formation of a new Anbu team which Itachi would lead as captain. Apparently, due to an increase in the number of assignments, Konoha needed another squad of Anbu to deal with the influx, and since they couldn't recruit from the Regular Corps without lowering the standards for the special unit, they would be using shinobi from Danzo's forces to make the team up, with Itachi as a sort of representative from the Hokage's Anbu.

Itachi knew that this was probably a ploy from Danzo to bring him to his side or at least to leave him in a position to make a move on Itachi's eyes as he did with Shisui. He didn't have any proof of Danzo's malfeasance besides Shisui's words and his own inconclusive findings of his dealings. The words of someone dead for over a year and a half now and a few suspicious activities he had spotted here and there would do him no good. Perhaps this was even an opportunity for him to produce the necessary evidence to bring it to the Third but for now, he would have to acquiesce.

"Captain Kakashi," Itachi called after the silver-haired man, waiting for him to turn around and bowing at the waist. "Thank you for the past two years."

Kakashi put both hands on his hips in a mock admonishing position. "Come on now, you're only changing sections. You're still a Hidden Leaf shinobi," he offered. "It's not like you're going far away."

Itachi forced himself to smile politely at Kakashi's naïve statement. It's not as if it was his fault, truly. Like most others in Konoha, he couldn't know of the true nature of Danzo and his organization. After all, who would doubt a man who had been serving as an advisor for the Third Hokage since most could remember. A man who was taught by the Second Hokage Tobirama Senju himself and fought in the Second Shinobi World War alongside him. No, he couldn't know that the same person had stolen the eyes of a loyal Konoha nin and from Itachi's own observations after the fact, was involved in numerous possibly shady schemes in the village.

"Of course, of course," Itachi went along. He looked towards the clock on the opposite wall and realized that soon he would have to report to Danzo. Kakashi must have noticed the glance and offered a quick farewell before turning and leaving. All the better, in Itachi's opinion. He had to stop at the Uchiha District to pick up some extra equipment and would have to rush to the Root base after that, he didn't have much time for chit-chat. Not that Kakashi was one for that either.

Itachi leaped out of the nearest open window and started roof-hopping towards his house thinking about his new position. He had worked both in conjunction with Root Anbu members and under Danzo's orders as a member of the Executive Council before, but now, he would be serving the councilor directly, without the village hierarchy as an intermediate. It would be a fine line between disobeying his superior officer and betraying the village, depending on what Danzo ordered him to do. He also couldn't tip Danzo that he knew about what really happened to Shisui, lest he ends the same way as his best friend. He would have to be careful, very careful.

Despite that, when he entered his clan's district and received knowing nods from members of the Police Force, he knew that he would have to report the truth about what the Uchiha were planning to Danzo. His first priority was that of a Konoha shinobi after all.

Itachi made quick time to his house – grabbing a new kunai holster and a sealing scroll with everything he would need for emergency deployment – and back to the other side of the village to a Root base. He navigated the base with the help of an Anbu that had been waiting to show him to one of Danzo's offices, deep inside the compound.

Arriving at the room, Danzo dismissed Itachi's escort as the Uchiha knelt in front of him. Not even turning to address Itachi, Danzo spoke as soon as they were the only ones in the room and the silencing seals were activated.

"I've gotten reports that the Police Force is strengthening their armaments. What do you make of that?" Danzo asked, turning to look at Itachi with his unbandaged eye.

 _'A test then…'_ Itachi concluded. Danzo already knew the reason behind the Police's recent reinforcement was due to the upcoming coup d'état but wanted to see if he would side with the village or with his clan.

"Dissatisfaction toward the Hidden Leaf is running high among the Uchiha," Itachi admitted.

"We can't ignore it anymore, it seems," Danzo murmured, more to himself than anything.

"Yes…" Itachi said, choosing to answer anyway.

"Hm," Danzo harrumphed, turning back to the wall with a pondering look on his face. Itachi had no doubt that sooner rather than later Danzo would move against the Uchiha Clan. He wouldn't let them get too far with their preparations for the coup d'état without doing anything.

"I have another mission for you, for now, Itachi. I have two new recruits that show a lot of promise, and I want you to train them tomorrow morning."

"Train them?" Itachi questioned a bit confused with the request. You do a lot of things as an Anbu captain, training new recruits is not one of them. "Are they to be in my squad then?"

"No, they won't," Danzo answered simply.

Itachi couldn't help but frown at the unclear response. Why would he train someone if they were not on his squad? Seeing that he wouldn't get anything else out of Danzo, Itachi decided to just go with it. It wasn't as if he could refuse him anyway.

"As you wish, Danzo-sama."

"Good," he said. "Meet them at the Western base tomorrow at 0700 hours, ground #3. That will be all." Danzo opened a scroll and started reading it, showing that Itachi had already been thoroughly dismissed.

Itachi saluted before Shunshining out of the room and heading home for the night. He felt like he was back to doing D-ranks with his genin team and had a babysitting job tomorrow. Which was good… Itachi liked babysitting.

xXx

"Nii-san!" Sasuke called out from down the hall, running all the way to the front door to catch up with him. "Will you take me to the academy?"

The young boy was grinning from the prospect of having his older brother walk him that morning, but it wasn't to be. Itachi lifted his arm up when Sasuke was just behind him and poked him in the forehead with his fore and middle finger. "I'm sorry, Sasuke." The boy stumbled back from the soft poke, almost falling on his behind. "Maybe next time. I have a mission this morning."

Sasuke pouted, rubbing his hand on his forehead dramatically. "You always say that, Nii-san…"

"How about I take you to practice your Shurikenjutsu this weekend?" Seeing his brother still disbelieving, Itachi said, "I promise, okay?"

Sasuke grinned victoriously at his brother's promise. He had been wanting to show his improvement in Shurikenjutsu to Itachi for a while now. "Alright! See you later tonight then, Nii-san."

Itachi chuckled as his brother went running back to the kitchen. With all that was happening with the Uchiha Clan, he hoped he wouldn't have to break his promise to his brother. He so hoped.

Putting the rest of his gear and his mask on, Itachi left his house and the Uchiha District, roof-hopping all the way to the Westernmost Root base. Although the four (that he knew of) Root bases were all connected by underground tunnels, this one was the only that he had never had the pleasure of visiting. The Western base housed the Root members that lived within the organization and was also where their training grounds and gyms were located. Seeing that on the rare occasion that Root and regular Anbu had joint drills for situations like foreign invasion or another Kyuubi outbreak happened at one of Konoha's training grounds, Itachi never had a reason to go to the place, which made finding a specific training ground a rather annoying task. The Root members he went by were also hardly wont to give any information about where he needed to go, to the point where he was about to lock someone up on his Tsukuyomi until they told him when he finally stumbled upon a set of double-doors that led to – if the little plaque could be believed – training ground #3.

To say who was waiting for him on the training grounds was not who he expected would be an understatement. First, the two Anbu-clad shinobi there were definitely children. And that was alright. Not that he approved of having young children receiving the kind of training they would have to go through to make it as Anbu, but it wasn't anything he wasn't familiar with. He had become a Chūnin at 7 and an Anbu at 11 after all. No, what surprised him was that one of the blank-masked ninjas was the same kid that he ran into the night of Shisui's death almost two years ago. Sure, he had grown up a bit, his hair seemed longer and his shoulders wider, but with his Sharingan blazing since he stepped into the Root base, he could identify the chakra signature as belonging to that boy. He had wondered for a while who he was and why he had told them those things. With everything that happened since then, however, he hadn't had the opportunity to pursue that lead. To think that one of Danzo's Root members were not loyal to him was almost unbelievable given what he had seen through the years, but something had told him to let the boy go that night. He just hoped he made the right decision.

Walking up to the two, Itachi fixed on the reddish-haired Root ninja for a little longer than normal, just enough to let the boy know that he recognized him. He didn't know what his relationship with the other kid was or if he sympathized with the boy's anti-Danzo agenda – if what he said was actually true – so he decided against saying anything out loud. His recognition was noted, however, when the boy gave him the shortest of nods.

"I'm here under Danzo-sama's orders," Itachi declared stoically. "I assume you are the ones I'm to train?"

"That's right, Itachi-san." The other kid, a raven-haired boy said. At Itachi's slight head tilt, the boy added, "I'm Yomu and this is Kai. Danzo-sama told us you would be the one coming. He said we should focus on some of your specialties. The ones you could actually teach us."

"Namely," the shorter boy interrupted, "Shurikenjutsu and Taijutsu. He said that with your Sharingan you could check for any mistakes in our stances and forms and help us correct them."

Itachi nodded at the two boys, thinking about how better to approach this. He didn't consider himself a good teacher, especially since the only person he had actually taught something was his brother, and he unfortunately rarely had the time to do do that.

The reason behind Danzo's request for him to teach those two was still a mystery. Why would the old war hawk request for him specifically to teach them, and now of all times? Also, what made them special enough for private classes like this? And how did the supposed anti-Danzo boy fit into all this?

"Hn, I supposed we could do that," Itachi said, ignoring all the questions churning in his mind. He would do the mission regardless of the answers anyway unless doing so would prove a hazard to the village, which he doubted. Something about the boy's speech that night, of self-sacrifice being the mark of a true shinobi, especially a Konoha one, really resonated with his own beliefs. The idea being driven even further when he rationalized Shisui's life and death being a symbol of that. _'Self-sacrifice, huh,'_ Itachi thought.

"Let's do this, then. Shurikenjutsu first."

xXx

(1st Person Kai POV)

Uchiha Itachi was a fucking genius. A proper fucking genius.

I had been training as a ninja for roughly four years at that point, and with the Foundation to boot, which meant that besides eating, sleeping, and going on the occasional mission all I did was training, day in day out. As an 8 year old I could comfortably say that, even if mostly because of all my training, I was a prodigy when it came to being a shinobi. Of course, I had a few problem areas – namely chakra control – and didn't have contact with others my age besides Yomu, who was also a prodigy, but compared to the ninjas the village considered as geniuses in the show: Sasuke and Neji, I was stronger than them when they were 12 being my age. Hell, I could see myself beating them when I was only 6 years old. Kakashi as a 7 year old Chūnin was a better juxtaposition with mine and Yomu's abilities. Although I doubted Kakashi practiced as religiously as we did, the comparison was valid.

Itachi, though… that man was in a league of his own. 'Man'. He was only 13 at that time, so I guess he would be a 'pre-teen' more than anything. No, that was something I had to root out of me as soon as possible. I had to stop trying to use the parameters of my former world to measure what I saw in this one. This was a ninja world, where killing and deceiving was normal, where children on the best of occasions became adults at 12 and were sent out to the killing fields. I couldn't apply the morals of my Earth to the situations of the Elemental Nations. I would never get anything done otherwise. I couldn't help but think that I only rationalized it that way to make my own actions seem acceptable to myself. I had already killed dozens of men and women, shinobi and civilians alike, in battle and in cold blood. It scared me how it only got easier.

But I digress. Uchiha Itachi. For the first hour and a half of our practice, we focused only on Shurikenjutsu. The art of throwing kunai and shuriken to deadly results. It seemed silly that those simple weapons even mattered when I remembered the scale of the battles after a certain point in the anime but seeing Itachi going through some of the more advanced throwing techniques in different combat situations made me sure that unless dealing with a serious threat like a(n) A/S-class shinobi, he could finish anyone else with only a handful of the throwing stars. Which basically meant that he could kill even some Jōnin with Shurikenjutsu alone.

Itachi would ask us to scatter targets around a large area, even putting them completely behind trees and boulders, and he would still bullseye them all at once. It was just like in the anime where he did it in front of Sasuke. Yet… yet it was so much more impressive seeing up close. No move was wasted. He would leap and turn mid-air, the weapons would blur out of his hands and you could barely even see them deflecting off each other to hit the hidden targets. It was done with such grace and precision that despite his guidance we were not able to repeat his feats even once. Not when we lowered the numbered of targets, not when he ran us through it – correcting every movement – a dozen of times. He made the most boring aspect of a shinobi fight, the throwing of shuriken and kunai, seem an S-ranked jutsu.

It wasn't fruitless though. We improved a lot during the Shurikenjutsu practice. Our release timing, the nuances of sending chakra to the arms at the right moment, how best to curve the trajectory of shuriken, and we even started on deflecting the weapons off each other. All I could think throughout is how good of an Academy teacher Itachi could've been when he was older if he stayed at Konoha. The man, at 13, had the patience of a saint and was able to easily change teaching methods to best suit Yomu and I. It just made me feel bad for what he would have to go through. I hoped that in the future when it didn't fuck up the timeline too much, I could help him before he died. I'm sure that if the conflict between him and Sasuke was resolved Tsunade could cure him of his illness.

After Shurikenjutsu, we went on to have a Taijutsu only spar where Yomu and I were up against him. For the first hour – divided into twenty-minute bouts – Itachi only blocked or dodged our advances. It didn't matter how we went about it. We tried tag-teaming him, from above and below, circling and going at once from opposite directions, it didn't matter. Unless he blocked, we couldn't connect a single strike. If I thought fighting against Kakashi had been challenging, Itachi showed just how different of a league he was compared to anyone I had ever faced. After letting us unsuccessfully attack him, Itachi methodically broke down our fighting styles, correcting the most minute of mistakes in our stances, forms, and postures. Since he remembered everything from the flow of our strikes to the position of our eyes when we fought, even the way we threw simple kicks and punches and where to pay attention while doing so was revised and improved upon. The Sharingan was truly a miracle worker.

We got our asses thoroughly beaten for the next hour and a half when he decided to counter our advances. You don't see it that much on the show, but Itachi was as good at Taijutsu as he was with Ninjutsu and Genjutsu. He probably focused much less on it when his sickness started acting up at some point and just decided to end people with a simple glance.

Thankfully, Itachi called the end of our Taijutsu spars. Yomu was panting on the ground before I followed him soon enough after a quick kick to the stomach that sent me tumbling beside him. I don't think either Yomu or I could've kept going if he hadn't.

"Alright, that's good enough." The man didn't even have the decency to look winded while we were taking open-mouthed gulps of air and our clothes were ragged and dirt-stained.

"Did Danzo-sama say how long he wanted me to train you for?" Itachi asked, looking at the midday sun overtop our heads. I was glad we were at the tail-end of Autumn and the weather for that time of the day was appropriate enough for exercising.

"I believe that is at your discretion, Itachi-san," Yomu answered between pants.

"Hn," Itachi nodded, "Okay then. I don't have any other missions for the day, but I don't think you guys can keep going either way. How about we call it a day then?"

Yomu was about to agree with him when I interrupted. I wasn't going to let this golden opportunity to have Uchiha Itachi teach me some Ninjutsu go to waste. I was sure the Uchiha massacre would be happening soon, so I doubt I would be seeing him for a very long time, if at all again. "Itachi-san, do you think you could teach us a Katon technique? It's not any of our affinities, but I want to test how I would do with a non Suiton or Doton jutsu. And I'm sure Yomu wants to try it out too."

"I see," Itachi said, taking a scroll out of his pocket and tearing a piece of it. "You understand that using a jutsu that is not of your affinity can be extremely dangerous if you're not careful right, Kai-kun?" He took a pencil out of another pouch and started scribbling on it.

"Yes, I understand." I knew that it could be very draining to use a jutsu that was not one of my affinities, much less master it, but I had to try at some point. It _was_ possible to do it, so I would try it. And starting sooner was (almost) always better than later.

"Okay, then. I will teach you a C-rank fire jutsu." Itachi handed me the piece of paper showing the appropriate hand seals and motioned for Yomu to scoot over and read as well. "The Fire Release: Great Fireball Technique is a very common jutsu, especially in Konoha. It was originally created by the Uchiha Clan, but it soon became the staple jutsu for Konoha nin, seeing that most people in the Land of Fire have a Katon affinity."

The hand seals were not so complex: Snake → Ram → Monkey → Boar → Horse → Tiger. Yomu and I began to form them repeatedly, practicing for the technique while Itachi continued his explanation. "The jutsu itself can be used in two ways: as a literal fireball or as a continuous flame-thrower, where you don't release it all at once and keep adding chakra to the technique. For now, we will try doing it as a fireball."

After a few more minutes of going through the seals, to the point where it looked like we blurred through them, Itachi fought we were ready to test it out. "Alright, when you're doing it, you must inhale deeply and start molding the chakra in your lungs as fire. It's more instinctual than anything. Just think about how fire feels to you and try to knead your chakra that way inside your lungs, then expel it all at once."

"And try not to use too much chakra for now," Itachi added. "Yomu-kun, you go first."

Yomu nodded at Itachi and went through the set of hand seals. He inhaled when he was on the Tiger seal and let go a fireball the size of a human head that hit the trunk of a tree on the opposite side of the clearing, charring the top part of the trunk.

"Very good." Itachi pointed to his Sharingan than looked at Yomu who was out of breath from firing the jutsu. "Even though I could barely see any wasted chakra in your execution, you still end up using way more of it for a jutsu not of your affinity.

As you can see it comes out pretty small and most shinobi could either dodge or even tank it if they knew how to pump chakra and expel it through their whole body." Seeing our confused looks, he decided to add, "Yes, it is possible to come unscathed out of a fire jutsu. It just depends on how much chakra the user pumped into it in comparison to how much the victim used to protect themselves."

 _'Huh,'_ I thought, _'That explains why most Katon techniques in the anime seemed pretty useless and never actually finished anyone.'_

"Making it stronger will depend on how much you practice and how good your chakra control," Itachi explained. "Most people focus instead on mastering the jutsus of their affinities since even that can prove to be a daunting task. The Third Hokage is the only ninja I can think out of the top of my head that mastered all five elemental affinities."

Yeah, despite my harshness to some of Hiruzen's decisions I couldn't deny how much of a monster the guy was. The Sarutobi Clan might be famous now, but it was no Senju or Uchiha. He had no bloodline, housed no Bijuu, and didn't experiment with humans like a famous Snake Sannin. Yet, he got to the point where he mastered every single jutsu available in Konoha and was hailed as the next God of Shinobi after Hashirama Senju.

"Kai-kun," Itachi called, snapping me out of my thoughts. "Your turn."

"Right," I said, moving to the same spot Yomu released his jutsu. I went through the same set of seals and exhaled, ' **Fire Release: Great Fireball Technique** _ **(Katon: Gōkakyū no Jutsu).'**_

The fireball was of a decent size and engulfed the tree trunk completely. I barely had the time to admire my work when I suddenly felt sick and went to my knees, dry retching all the way. I felt lightheaded, and even with both hands on the ground, I was swaying. I couldn't even see properly; my vision was hazy, covered in black and white spots.

I almost faded to unconsciousness, but the familiar warm and refreshing sensation of the Mystical Palm Technique brought me back from the brink. "Laid down on your back, Kai," Yomu said, softly but demanding.

Despite my best attempts, he insisted on treating me like I was his younger brother in these situations. Even though we treated each other as equals most of the time, and in my _totally_ unbiased opinion I was more mature than him, when it came down to it, Yomu always felt like he was responsible for me in some way. I let him too. I had never had a brother before, and even with someone that at this point was more than a decade younger than me – mentally at least, though it is hard feeling like you grew up when you were stuck in a child's body – it felt… good. Comforting.

"You had to go and overdo it, didn't you?" Yomu admonished me. "Now you have slight chakra exhaustion because of your stunt."

I snorted at him, weakly though it was. "You're just saying that 'cause my Fireball was more powerful. You wouldn't happen to be jealous, would you, Yomu _-san_?"

Yomu, unfazed by my provocation, simply cut off his healing jutsu and looked at me with a tilt of his head. "Care to repeat that?"

I let out a weak whimper groan at the loss of the jutsu's warmth, "Nothing, nothing." He turned the technique on again at that and smirked victoriously. "That's what I thought."

Hearing the rustle of sandals on grass, I looked to the side where Itachi was clearly taken aback by our exchange. From our conversation on the day of Shisui's death and the overall atmosphere of our training today, I doubted he thought we were just like the other drones you got at Root. He had to have realized that we were not exactly as conditioned as the others, and he even seemed somewhat comfortable with us throughout the morning, but I suppose outright banter and teasing was not something he expected out of us. I didn't blame him, of course. This kind of thing must not even happen in the regular Anbu much less in Root.

Yomu must've realized our slip and cleared his throat loudly.

 _'So very smooth, Yomu.'_

"I believe Kai here is done for the day, Itachi-san."

Itachi snapped out of his daze – that was a sight too, Uchiha Itachi caught off guard – and let out the trademarked Uchiha 'hn' of agreement. "I'll take him inside so he can rest," Yomu continued.

"I apologize for the inconvenience, Itachi-san," I said, sitting up on my elbows and bowing my head. "Thank you for taking the time helping us today though."

Itachi reached into his back pouch and pulled out a few soldier pills. "Here," he said, handing me a couple. "And it was no problem, only my mission." Itachi nodded to us both in an approving manner, which if I had a Sharingan I would be using right then to save that moment in my mind, and turned to go. "I'll be off to report then. Take care, Yomu-kun, Kai-kun."

Yomu waited for a few moments after Itachi left before starting, "Kai… do you think he'll-"

"We're fine, Yomu," I interrupted him before he got too worried. Yomu could get _really_ paranoid with some things, especially when it was in any way related to Root or our plans about Danzo. "He won't report us for 'not being conditioned enough'. Trust me with this."

"If you say so," he acquiesced, picking me up and throwing me over his shoulder. "I'll drop you off in our room then I'll go pick you up something to eat. You're lucky we don't have a mission tonight, just a spar with another cell this afternoon."

"Another cell?" I asked. "You mean, another pair of kids like us?"

Yomu nodded, going past the doors that led to the inside of the compound. "Yes, and it would be our first time going up against someone our age too."

"Ugh, that's my bad then. I kind of wanted to see how we measured up against non-adults. Maybe some academy students…" I trailed off. I was well-aware how a fight between us and some students would go, but sometimes your ego just needs a good rubbing. Training with Root members and guys like Itachi are not good for my confidence as a shinobi.

"Don't be ridiculous, Kai," Yomu reprehended, turning a corner a little too close and almost banging my head on the metal pipe. I'm sure that if I complained I would just get an 'oops' out of him. "It's probably someone from the same batch as us or even a little older. Danzo-sama must want to peg us against one of the cells that didn't get the same 'special treatment' like us to see how effective our training is."

"Hmm," I harrumphed. That made sense. We hadn't gone through the same 'programs' the others our age in the Foundation did, our training was differentiated from what I could tell, and our instructors were only the best in Root. I also hadn't seen anyone in our age group going to missions so far, so the best way for Danzo to see how superior (or not) someone with our training was in relation to those that went through the normal Root processes was through a spar.

"Okay," Yomu said, opening the door to our room and dumping me unceremoniously in my bed. "I'll go get your food while you die there. We were supposed to have Shinobi History and Theory and Mathematics before the spar, but I'll cover for you. They're outsourced, so if I just tell them you got caught up in training with someone important like Boar or something they won't report you… probably."

A muffled groan from me smooshed on my pillow was all he got as an answer, and all he needed, apparently, as he headed out. I barely registered when he came back a few minutes later with a plate filled to the brim with food and left the room again without a word. Food might not be the best word to define the spreads they served us at Root. It wasn't necessarily bad-tasting or foul, just very _very_ bland. It was a thick paste-like porridge that was supposed to have all the nutrients and carbohydrates we needed from a meal. The only time we ate normal food was when we trained to identify poisons, hallucinogens, and other drugs before and while eating, which made the whole experience… unsavory to say the least. Yes, even the simple pleasures of life were denied us.

I forced myself to wolf all of it down before plopping down on my bed again. It was the first time I was suffering from chakra exhaustion in my life and I already felt bad for Kakashi. This sucked. I felt heavy and drowsy and my muscles seemed to be of the same consistency of the porridge. Even my thought process was failing me. Falling asleep was not a task.

xXx

Waking up to an unusually flustered Yomu a few hours later felt like coming out of hibernation. He ended up having to slap me in the face to bring me back to consciousness. That, in and of itself, showed how deep I was sleeping. Believe me, after getting beaten out of bed when you didn't wake up after a single knock at your door for the first weeks of the initiation period does wonders for becoming a light sleeper. I didn't blame them for training us like that either. The difference between a slashed throat and a healthy one is the rustle of leaves, the soft thud of footsteps, the scrape of metal on leather of a sword being unsheathed. Having to be awakened by a slap is embarrassing, to say the least.

Yomu was trying to shake me awake while I rubbed the desert out of my eyelids. It felt like I went to sleep in my room and woke up in Gaara's wet dream. "Kai, you're going to have to make it to the spar. I heard Danzo and a few other officers will be there to watch us."

"What?" I asked, still a bit out of it.

Yomu put one of his hands on my head and the other on my chest, the green glow of medicinal chakra radiating from them. "You heard me. Now, how are you feeling? Still a bit nauseated and indisposed? Look, you're just going to have to push through and put on the show they're expecting of us."

I waved his hands away and got up to stretch the drowsiness out. "What are you talking about? Look," I said, doing some handstands and one-handed vertical push-ups. "I'm fine. Just a bit sleepy. And frankly, irritated that you slapped me. Was that really necessary? Or was that about the rat on your bedroll on our last mission? Because honestly, it wasn't me, though I admit I was the one giggling. I was the only one there but still…"

"What?" Yomu chocked out. "There was a rat in my bedroll? No! Forget about that. We have a spar in ten minutes that we have to get to, and you're supposed to be sick right now."

"I'm telling you, I'm fine."

"How? I mean, that's great but you should be feeling like puking just for getting out of bed…" Yomu said, a tad exasperated. "The first stage of slight chakra exhaustion – nausea and dizziness – should last at least half a day. Then you'd be spending the rest of it and the night not getting up for anything less than the Fourth Great Shinobi War."

"Well," I started with a sly grin. "Call in the cavalry and let's go kill some fence sitters 'cause I'm fine."

"First, that's only the Tsuchikage's nickname but whatever," he sighed, moving to his trunk and picking up his gear. "If you're really fine then come on, we got to get to the training ground."

I nodded at him, turning on my business persona. I picked up my own gear and put on my blank mask. We weren't enforced to wear our masks when in the base, but you learn that every bit of information is worth something tomorrow, even to your comrades of today.

We walked in silence to the same training ground we were in that morning. The sun was now almost touching the western horizon, casting shadows to our right when we walked out of the complex. We still had around an hour of sunshine to play with, but if Yomu was right about us having to put on a show, we wouldn't be needing all of that time. A few minutes of tree hopping took us to a large clearing bordered by a stream on one side and a tall rocky wall on the other. A few tree stumps dotted the area of the clearing by the stream and a small crater was dead middle on the clearing.

On top of the wall I could see Danzo, Boar, and Cat amongst a half a dozen other Root high-ranking officers ready to watch us. They didn't say a thing, just waited for the other pair to arrive. When they did, I was glad my mask was on. In hindsight, of course, it was Sai and Shin. It had to be them. The universe seemed to fancy a coincidence or twelve with me. They looked as ragged and downtrodden as they did in the anime before they fought to the death. Civilian clothes one size too big were in the place of the black and gray top with red suspenders that he wore through most of the show.

Sai looked _really_ young as well, perhaps my age or a year older. From what I could remember, by the time he had to fight Shin he looked as old as he did in Shippuden, which meant that their confrontation was years away. That was… comforting, to say the least. I couldn't just count on my and Yomu's possible fight being years away. I had to be ready if it was tomorrow or in five years just the same. Unfortunately, Yomu didn't know about the fight, and since all my Naruto knowledge was impossible to impart, I couldn't tell him just how important it was for us to be ready to leave at any time. In his mind, staying at Root, for now, was the best option we had. We got stronger every day there, so he was within reason. The stronger we got, the closer we were to being able to kill Danzo, and I didn't have a good enough reason for us to leave. Besides, where would we even go? We might be trained, but we were still a pair of 8- and 10-year olds. We couldn't go to any hidden village as we would immediately be branded and becoming rogue ninjas was not an option. Danzo would hunt us down like animals no matter where we went. No, for now, we had to stay. I had to mitigate my anxiety over it with the fact that Danzo had expended a _lot_ of time and resources on both of us and throwing us away for one or the other would be a waste. We weren't his regular trainees, so hopefully, his usual graduation test would be laid aside.

I shook the dreadful thoughts away and focused on the coming spar. Liking Sai or not, I couldn't go easy here. They were expected to lose in any case. That was the purpose of this. An exhibition. "What do you think Yomu? Tag-team?" I asked him quietly.

"No," he answered. "Divide and conquer."

I nodded and cracked my neck to one side then the other. "Right. You take the grey haired one, I'll take the other." He harrumphed his agreement and readied himself, waiting for Danzo's uplifted hand to come down.

The moment it did, it was a blitz. The gap between us was noticeable and the spar was quite uninspiring. I didn't get to see much of Shin's abilities, for as soon as it started, Yomu rushed at him with his bō staff, driving him across the clearing into the trees in the defensive. Sai had tried to help his adoptive-brother but I held him in the clearing with a mud wall that cut off his retreat. He used his **Super Beast Imitating Drawing (** **Chōjū Giga)** throughout the fight but they were slow and ineffective compared to when he used his jutsu in the show. A few water bullets did the trick when he managed to draw them. We clashed tantōs here and there, but he didn't measure up to me in that art. It was clear that he had just started training with it as his form still remembered those that were used when fighting with a kunai.

In the end, it was over within ten minutes. Yomu came back to the clearing with a split-lipped Shin in his tow just as I stood above Sai with my tantō held against his throat. Perhaps if we had gone at them with the intent to kill it would have finished even sooner, but that wasn't the case. Danzo ordered us to go again twice more with the same results before he seemed satisfied and went off with his entourage. One of the shinobi that I didn't recognize broke off from the group and quickly told us we should take a break then keep training until dusk, before going off again after Danzo and the others. Sai and Shin seemed to agree with the 'taking a break' part, for just when our Root seniors were out of reach, they collapsed to the ground, panting and sweating from our three sessions. Yomu and I simply shrugged and took out some rations and our water bottles to get ready to continue.

I ate my replenishing bar silently, observing the little interactions between Sai and Shin. They seemed like true brothers from the way they talked and smiled at each other. It was clear that our presence was a bit discomforting, but their emotions weren't as repressed as I expected them to be. I badly wanted to go over and talk to Sai, just for old times sake. Or future times sake… possible future times sake. Whatever. In any case, I wanted to see what he was like before he became a drone and I took my chance when Shin grabbed both their bottles and walked to the stream to fill or clean them. Taking two other bars as my peace offering, I nodded at Yomu affirmingly when he tilted his head in question for what I was doing and made my way across the clearing to sit by the raven-haired boy. I noticed he had taken out a book from his pocket and wasn't paying attention to me, so I made as much noise as possible. I was trained to walk silently – like a ghost, they taught us – so I had to consciously draw my sandals across the grass and dried leaves to alert him of my coming.

Sai stopped his drawing when he noticed me a few feet away and warily looked to where Shin had gone as if debating calling for his help or not. He already seemed distrustful, if not afraid, of me during the spar, – a tantō to the throat a few times does that – but he refrained from shouting to his brother.

I decided not to push him too much and plopped down on the grass in a relaxed lotus position, ignoring his glare at mt every move.

"I'm Kai," I said, reaching for my mask and removing it. Perhaps it wasn't the smartest move on my part, due to his possible future relation to the main cast, but I felt like it was the right thing to do at the moment. He wasn't green enough to just open up to me at that, but it did seem to placate a little of his mistrust.

He simply nodded at me. I don't know why I was expecting him to answer me with his name. Sai was only supposed to be what he was called for the mission to spy on Naruto, so he probably didn't even have a name now.

I pulled out my tanto, immediately getting a reaction out of him, but I held up my other hand in a peaceful, non-threating way – as non-threating as someone with a mini-sword in his hand can appear – and did a slow, diagonal overhead slash. "You're overreaching," I said, pointing at my sword arm with my free hand. "Whenever you go for an overhead slash, you're leaving yourself open to a quick counter. And next time, when you're fighting someone that seems to be stronger than you, try to parry, not block them."

Sai seemed a bit stunned by my advice, probably not expecting someone he saw as an enemy to be teaching him. "Thanks," he said, "I only just started learning Kenjutsu."

"I figured." He seemed to deflate a bit at that, so I scramble for a quick 'pick-me-up'. "You're still pretty good for a newbie, so don't worry too much about it."

We fell into a decisively awkward silence, him probably trying to figure out what my deal was and me grasping at what to say. "So…" I started, not really sure where I was going with it. "That jutsu of yours, I've never seen anything like it. I take it you're an artist, then?" That was good, something Sai likes, something he's comfortable with.

Still, he seemed unsure of how to answer that. Perhaps he thought I was probing him for weaknesses. As in, I was tasked by someone to see if he was doing anything non-shinobi like. God, Root turned us all paranoid. "Hm, I like drawing," he said, thumbing his picture book discretely. Not discrete enough for me to no pick up on it.

 _'Wait, didn't he forget the purpose of the book after Shin died or something like that?'_

That's it, I knew just what to say to him. I just needed to approach it right. "That's cool. Is that what that book is, then? A drawing book?"

"Uhm." He fidgeted with the book unsurely, probably still afraid I would confiscate it or something. "You don't have to talk about it if you don't want to," I tried reassuring him.

"No, it's fine," he murmured quietly. "It's… it's meant to be a present. For my brother."

"Is it precious to you?"

He nodded tentatively. And yet, with more enthusiasm than he showed during the whole conversation. It was clear that it was a treasure to him when a genuine smile tugged on his face despite his best attempts to conceal it. "Good," I smiled at him, getting up and sheathing my tanto. "Don't ever forget what that book means to you, then." He seemed a little taken aback by my words but nodded, nonetheless. I gave him the two ration bars I brought over, said that we would start sparring again in five minutes and went back to the other side of the clearing.

I knew, pretty much as a fact, that Sai would lose his brother. For the disease or for Root, Shin would perish.

I could only hope that I wouldn't lose mine.

* * *

 ** _A/N:_** _This chapter doesn't move the story further a lot, but some things just needed to be said. I also really wanted to write an Itachi POV. Just cause._

 **Also, one reason why I would like to know any comments you have on the story thus far:**

 **TediousExploit:** Thank you for the review, and I think you're totally right. It hasn't even been a month since I wrote the first chapters but now when I come back to read them I can see a lot of holes in the story or simply things that should've been expanded or better explained - like the torture/conditioning in Root- that I didn't. It's really silly too because that was one of the parts that made me want to write a story involving Root. I think I must've gotten excited about future ideas more than what I had planned for that part and ended up rushing the story, which I now(because of your review) realize should never be done with a novel.  
Now about the reason he was able to withstand the torture besides having an adult mindset; that is something that will make sense in the future.  
I doubt I'll go back to re-write that part of the story again even knowing it is subpar(unless I get some major inspiration). I'll just try to make the future chapters and storylines better. As I said in the intro, this is my first time writing anything so unfortunately there will be errors and mistakes besides grammar ones. A shame, but you only learn by making them.  
With that said, this is exactly why I ask for people to review and let me know if they think I blundered somehow.  
Thank you


	6. Chapter 6

_**Summary:**_ _Dying and getting thrown into another world can be really liberating, especially if it's the world of Naruto. Just imagine the possibilities, with the future knowledge you would have to boot, they are truly endless. Or so you thought. A story in which our OC has to fix the Naruto timeline but ends up becoming a little too preoccupied trying to survive one of the deadliest destinies in the Naruto world._

 _ **Disclaimer:**_ _I do not own Naruto._

 _ **Warning:**_ _Rated T for violence, language, and suggestive adult themes._

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Chapter 6

Like most days in the land known for its fine weather, the sun shone brightly atop the Hidden Leaf Village. A slight late-spring breeze swept the namesake leaves over the dirt roads of the village and cooled the midday heat off. After decades of constant conflict, where three Great Shinobi Wars were fought, and the subsequent attack by the Nine-Tailed Demon, Konoha was enjoying another day of the peace that was settled for more than eight years.

The clatter and clamor of the usual lunch crowds, flooding the restaurants in the city center, added to the buoyant atmosphere of the Leaf. The shops stayed open past their lunch hours to accommodate the stream of customers. The smithies worked double-time to fulfill the many orders from the shinobi that had an abundance of missions to complete. The blacksmiths of the shopping district whistled away as they hammered the next kunai to perfection. Across the street, the tanner finished working on yet another set of arm guards, and the tailor sold the last of his formal silk yukata. The greengrocer called his wares atop an old wagon, filled with the best fresh vegetables the Land of Fire had to offer. The butchers butchered, the merchants sold, and the bakers baked.

From all the dealings and negotiations happening throughout the village, there was one that could lift the harmony that permeated the Leaf. It was a negotiation that dealt with a different currency than the ones happening around the city. It dealt with the lives of every living soul—men, women, and child—in Konoha. The decisions made in that small meeting room inside the Hokage Tower would define and shape the future of the village and—particularly—of the Uchiha Clan.

Despite the established hierarchy and the many chains of command, the two men in the room were the de facto powers behind the engine of Konoha. Powers that most often than not, clashed.

"We've let this go on for too long, Hiruzen." Sitting with his cane resting against the armrest of his sit, Shimura Danzo, Elder, and leader of one of the special branches of the village's military, was the first to break the silence.

Taping the butt of his pipe against the wooden table, the Third Hokage, Sarutobi Hiruzen, took a long, deep drag before answering. "Perhaps," he conceded, taking his time enjoying the tobacco entering his system. "But solving this situation in peaceful terms is our priority. I will not have the genocide of one of the founding clans on my hands."

Danzo leaned back sighting, his shoulders pressing on the armchair. "It's always like this with you, isn't it?" Danzo and his former teammate almost never saw eye to eye. Not since their teacher, the Second Hokage, passed away. Their ideals—the very thing that defined them—were incompatible. "This softness will kill you one day," he said.

Hiruzen let out a mirthless chuckle. "Not if you kill me first, old friend."

Danzo's mouth almost pulled up on the corner. Almost. Gone were the days when he and Hiruzen had bantered with each other back and forth. The years had not been fair with their friendship. Now he was more amused by the partial truth of the statement. Danzo would do what he felt was necessary to secure the future of Konoha. He was not above plotting his old friend's death. He had tried it before after all.

"I will not let the Uchiha stage a coup d'état," Danzo said firmly, getting back on topic. "That's one thing we can agree on." Hiruzen nodded. Of that, they were in accord. He would not have a civil war in his village.

Danzo got up, taking the Hokage's acknowledgment as the end of the discussion. "Hold on now!" Hiruzen called after him, getting up from his own sit. "We haven't come to a conclusion yet."

Danzo turned his head sharply. "If the Uchiha are getting ready to act, we must prepare too," he said.

Hiruzen sagged internally at Danzo's statement. He couldn't deny the need for preparation. But giving an inch to Danzo was always dangerous. "Preparations only, Danzo," he warned, doubting that it would stop the man from doing more than that. His old teammate was a man of many webs. Webs upon webs. Hiruzen knew his 'preparation' could prove to be much more than that.

xXx

(3rd Person Yomu POV)

Watching his brother like that always made Yomu nervous.

When in a mission, he could accept its possible outcomes. Both him and Kai might not return. Or worse, only he would. He understood the harsh reality of the shinobi world better than most ever could, even at his age. One day, Kai could dodge a kunai a second too late. He could step on an unseen trip-wire, piss off a stronger ninja, have a sword driven through his back. Kai could die any day in their profession. As anyone could, him included. Yet, Yomu understood that.

When his brother was injured, Yomu couldn't even be bothered to worry. He always bounced back. In fact, it was comforting knowing Kai was locked up in the medical bay. It meant that he wasn't out there stepping on unseen trip-wires, pissing off stronger ninjas, or having swords driven through his back. He might be able to accept and understand it, but God knew he didn't want it to happen.

No. What made Yomu apprehensive was the pensive look Kai had every other morning recently. His usually energetic brother would sit on his bed with his legs crossed and a wistful look on his face. He claimed he was simply meditating. "Meditation brings wisdom; lack of meditation leaves ignorance. Know well what leads you forward and what holds you back and choose the path that leads to wisdom," he said when Yomu questioned him about it. Yeah, that's some bullshit right there.

His brother might be smart, a borderline genius, but he was no old wise-man. He didn't have a placid bone in his body either. Sure, he could act the perfect shinobi when he needed it; quiet; decisive; focused; cruel, even. But when they weren't being scrutinized for their every little action, Kai was as serene as a puppy. Which meant you had to play with it until it was utterly spent to get it to quiet down. For him to meditate was just… wrong. A conundrum.

It wasn't just that. Yomu knew Kai was hiding something from him. He could feel it. It was on the way Kai stuttered and stopped himself midsentence at times. It was on the sorrowful look Kai gave him when he thought Yomu wasn't paying attention. Or how he seemed fascinated by people that they had barely just met, like the young Root trainee from the other day, or their instructor, Itachi. It all just didn't add up.

It hurt, also. That his brother, his closest and only friend, would hide something from him. Something that was clearly important for Kai. Important enough that he thought of it for hours on end when he could.

Perhaps he was being overzealous about it all. His habit of overthinking his every move and that of others in the organization he was part of made him jittery and too suspicious for his own good. Suspicious enough that he would think so about Kai. Besides, it wasn't as if they didn't have the right to their own secrets and private thoughts. Well… officially, as per the code of conduct from Root, they didn't. Not someone in their position. Everything was supposed to be on the table. But his and Kai's own unspoken agreement didn't include telling each other everything. They usually did, of course. They were best friends after all. _'At least I usually do…'_ Yomu mused to himself. _'No. How can I say that? Kai earned my trust. Twice over.'_ He shook himself out of his own admonishing thoughts and finally spoke up. "Kai, we were summoned by Danzo."

The auburn-haired boy seemed to take a long moment until he snapped out of his daze and acknowledged Yomu. Kai's mismatched blue and green eyes, cold and hard like polished gemstones, bore onto his own. The intensity behind the gaze lasted only a moment before the usual warmth returned. "Oh, hey. Mission, is it?"

"I—I'm not sure," Yomu stumbled with the words. "We just have to go and see."

Kai nodded. "Alright. Let me just get my stuff."

Yomu nodded back dumbly. He tried to dismiss the thoughts that assaulted his head. He did. He tried telling himself that it was just yesterday's emergency work at the medical bay that had him muddled. That much blood and gore and guts would shock the most seasoned of combat doctors. And he was neither. Yet, at least.

Apparently, another border skirmished had taken place at the north-western limit of the Land of Fire. Probably a small territorial dispute with a minor village—though those were happening a lot more recently. The situation with the regular and Root Anbu squads had been so dire that any and all medically-capable personnel had been required to clock in. Which included him.

That could explain it. It had to. He didn't want to doubt his brother. Nor was there any real reason to. His suspicions were based on loosely related actions that could be summed up by simple personality quirks. Which he had come to realize that most shinobi ended up with.

But those eyes. Had he ever seen Kai look at someone, or at anything like that? Did he just catch him at the wrong moment, while he was meditating, or was it directed at him?

 _'God, I'm becoming paranoid.'_

"Yomu? Hello."

"Huh?" Yomu looked behind him. Kai was already at the door waiting for him, frowning at his aloof behavior.

"Uh. Sorry. I was… elsewhere," he said.

Kai snorted. "Clearly." He motioned with his head and opened the door. "Let's go. We don't want to leave Danzo- _sama_ waiting." That brought a small smile to his face. Hiding something or not, Kai knew just how to brighten the mood.

They walked side by side through the stark, grey tunnels. Their masks now on. Both their blank porcelain ones and the ones they used whenever those wore displayed. The masks that showed what was expected of them. That of a perfect Root Anbu.

They ignored most of the passersby in the tunnels; the majority of them being the support staff of Root and nodded to the one officer they encountered. You weren't expected to interact with anyone unless you needed to, only someone higher than you in the hierarchy deserved spontaneous acknowledgment.

Turning the last corner, Yomu and Kai came to the familiar double doors of Danzo's office. The dark mahogany doors loomed before them. By the intricate carvings on the wood—on one side, a relief carving of the Leaf Village symbol; on the other, the kanji for Root ( _Ne_ ) was sunken—Yomu almost expected to come in into a grand and luxurious office. He was, of course, disappointed as always when the two guards on duty opened the doors and stepped aside. Danzo maintained the same spartan decoration expected of any Root agent. What wasn't needed was thrown out. An apt analogy on how the man operated his organization.

The brothers knelt in front of the desk that centered the room.

"I have a mission for the two of you," Danzo said, his eyes never leaving the scroll in his hands. "An assassination."

Yomu, as senior of their cell, spoke up. "It will be done, Danzo-sama."

"I would send an officer with you on a mission of this caliber, but this is a very important week for Root. Most of them will be needed here in the village or at the border," he explained.

Kai seemed to stiffen at his side. Yomu spared him a sideways glance but dismissed it when Danzo started up again. "The target is a prominent merchant in the capital. You will find everything we know of him and his family in this scroll." He tossed Yomu the scroll he had in his hands and looked up for the first time since they walked in. His one visible eye narrowing. "Our contractor is the patriarch of the Kanami noble family, and already paid in advance. Failure is not an option."

"It never is," the brothers echoed.

Danzo nodded. "Good. Leave as soon as possible and take no more than a week," he ordered, gesturing with his hands in a dismissive manner.

"Hai, Danzo-sama," Yomu and Kai said, bowing their heads and exiting the room.

xXx

In the gentle spring breeze that swept over the surrounding hills of the capital of the Land of Fire, Hōno, everything seemed to move. The grass blades, tinted red and purple by the twilight sky, swayed in harmony with the leaves of the staple giant oak trees of the region. Even the thick ivy shrubs that dotted the landscape danced to the wind's song. All moved. All but the two black blurs sitting atop a large tree that overlooked the walls of the city. They didn't sway or dance. They only observed.

Yomu and Kai had been scrutinizing the guard movements of both the city walls and of the Hataru family mansion complex since they arrived from Konoha in the early afternoon. Their target lived in a huge compound that lined most of the eastern walls of the capital. In the mission scroll, they learned that Hataru Eike had become one of the biggest mineral dealers of the Land of Fire, with companies ranging from the mining and refining of iron ore to the production of steel.

Recently, Eike had delved into the distribution business, trying to operate on the whole chain of production for the ore. He had, inadvertently, stepped on the toes of their contractor, Kanami Hideyoshi. The Kanami were an old hand on the distribution business, and the up and coming rise of a commoner as their competitor must not have bode well with them.

It didn't please Yomu to have to assassinate someone just because they become competitors to a nobleman. But it was the reality. Their reality. Eike should have known better too. Theirs was as cutthroat a world as the shinobi one. At the top, daggers in the night were as commonplace as silver spoons.

Yomu heaved a heavy sigh from his perch on the tree. "What do you think?"

Kai shrugged his shoulders, probably as stiff as Yomu felt from crouching on the same branch for hours. "Security is tight but doable," he said. He pointed to the part of the complex walls that overlaid with the city walls. "See there. There are fewer guards on the walls that overlap. They rely on the daimyo's guards for that part and put most of their men on the walls facing the city."

"The Hataru's expect an attack from someone on the inside then," Yomu concluded.

Kai nodded. "Well, they technically aren't wrong." He pulled a writing scroll from his pouch and started drawing a rough map of the compact and the walls. "We should wait and observe some more tonight and tomorrow just to be sure of the guard movements in the dark, but I think our best entry point is here." He circled a point where the wall towers were furthest apart. "The complex walls have only merlons, and they are pretty low. We will be able to see the guards coming for their rounds from a mile away with those lanterns. So long as we time it right, it should work."

"I agree," Yomu said. "They must really not know a lot about city guards, eh? To rely so much on them."

"Mhm," Kai snickered. "Bastards are as lazy as a group of Naras on patrol duty."

Yomu fought not to laugh out loud less he makes a ruckus. The Nara Clan reputation preceded them even at Root. "Alright, alright," he said, more for his sake than anything. "I'll take first watch and record their movements. We'll go in two nights from now."

xXx

It was a somber night. The waning moon shone a dull silver light that barely made it past the dark, ominous clouds. The crickets and owls that had serenaded Yomu and Kai for the past two nights were silent, and even in the city, the remaining lights shuddered against the oppressive darkness. Perfect for those used to operate from the shadows. And from the shadows, they surged.

Yomu was the first through the walls. Not a second later, Kai followed. Nothing but blurs going through where the darkness was thickest. They had laid flat on the city walls, waiting for the bored pair of guards to go by. A dozen seconds later, they knew the sentries of the complex wall would have just gone by as well and took both walls on the same run.

Crouched by a thicket inside the compound, Yomu situated himself with the place he got used to seeing from afar for the past two days. He and Kai had memorized the blueprint for the mansion beforehand—buying a house from the government had its risks (public records)—and their position on the trees atop the hills that overlooked the complex had made them that much more familiar with it. They knew exactly where to find their target.

The main house was traditionally built, with wings surrounding a green courtyard on three sides with its back opened to the outlying buildings. Luckily for them, the house faced the city and the main gates. They could approach Eike's living quarter directly through the courtyard, only needing to go by the other buildings.

Kai gestured his readiness and Yomu nodded. Hunt time.

They stalked through the mansion grounds, going from cover to cover. Shadow to shadow. Nothing to give them away.

With a patrol approaching, they stole into the stables through an open window, high on the third floor. The smell of sweat and leather assaulted Yomu's senses as soon as he landed on the wooden mezzanine. He cringed when the planks creaked under his weight, but the unresponsiveness of the horses made him assume they were used to the noise. He turned back to Kai who was glancing out the window from the side, holding his right hand tight into a fist by his head. As soon as he uncurled it, he dropped from the window and Yomu followed.

Still following shadows, they passed the last building, a small but intricate private shrine, and entered the courtyard. At its center, a clear-water pond, its banks lined with small bonsai trees, was traversed by a narrow, arched bridge. Niwaki and blooming cherry blossom trees dotted the surrounding landscape, and stepping stones were as prevalent as grass blades.

Yomu wanted to stop and appreciate the beautiful scenery. He realized that even his view of nature was warped by his time with Root. He saw trees as target practice, ponds as fuel for Water Release Jutsu, and stepping stones as options that didn't leave footprints. He yearned for the serenity and sureness of it. The sureness of _yes, the trees will be there tomorrow_ that he didn't have in his life.

 _'One day, perhaps.'_ He shook himself. _'Just not tonight.'_

He followed Kai towards the last room to their right. The master bedroom. Eike's room. They stepped from the ground the concrete patio; this time, Yomu was sure to make no sound. From there on out perfect was the minimum standard.

They checked the sliding door for any seal or trap and upon finding none, they opened it. The room was a large, perfect square, traditionally decorated with only a modern-style bed. Directly in front of them, a paneled standing room divider, designed all black with red mountains, was settled beside a walk-in closet. To their right, a long, short-legged table stood surrounded by cushions.

Finally, on the furthest corner, the bedroom proper was a smaller square, sectioned off by white noren. Yomu could see two mounds through one of the rolled-up curtains, one bigger than the other. _'The target and his wife, then.'_

Before either of them took a step inside, they noticed it. The room was silent. Completely silent. It was a hollow silence too. Yomu could still hear the wind sighing through the trees, the koi fish coming up for air and bubbling in the pond, and the small bamboo water-wheel slapping the water mechanically. Yet, from the room, there was only silence. No light snoring from the occupants, no alarm clock ticking. Nothing. In Yomu's mind, that could only mean one thing, and it had no place in a civilian's house that didn't seem to employ shinobi. A one-way privacy seal.

 _'Fuck!'_

Yomu reacted first, grabbing Kai and rolling into the room. Where they only just stood, five kunai were embedded into the patio. He turned back as soon as he came up and unsealed his bō staff from his wrist-seals. Kai, recognizing the situation for what it was, an ambush, unsheathed his tantō from his back and took a defensive stance. They were the hunted now.

Three shinobi sauntered into the room after them. They were dressed in regular, Konoha Anbu attires, only with red armbands on their biceps. Two of them held kunai at their side, ready to strike or throw. The tallest of them, the one in the middle, carried a sheathed nodachi splayed over his shoulder. "Just where we want them to be," the tall man said haughtily. Yomu could almost see the man's smirk from behind his mask.

"Tsk," he clucked. "We've been had."

Kai snorted and turned comically to Yomu, tilting his head. "Really? You don't say," he said.

"Not now, Kai."

"Right," he said, turning back to the enemy as if his attention had actually left them at all. Yomu knew that he had given the opening on purpose to perhaps draw the attacker. Didn't hurt to try. "Ambushed. Fighting. Probably tortured and killed. Serious stuff first."

From behind them, two other shinobi came out from the other side of the standing panels. One had long blond hair on a war-braid with a katana in his grasp. The other held two kunai at the ready. No snarky comments from or arrogant posing from them; they charged. At the same time, the three shinobi in front of them followed suit.

They made quick work in separating him from Kai, probably expecting Anbu partners to have exceptional teamwork. And they weren't wrong for doing so. Yomu knew that if these were really Anbu level shinobi, the only way they could have walked out of a five-on-two situation was by fighting together.

The two sword-wielding ninjas blitzed him. A smart move considering the range inadequacy of fighting someone brandishing a bō staff with kunai. The exact reason why Yomu liked using it so much. He shifted his grip on the staff and pivoted, striking the blonde man as he reached him first. The butt of his weapon thudded on the man's ribs, eliciting a groan and a stumble. He caught the tall man coming at him with an overhead slash from the corner of his eyes, and with no time to appreciate his handiwork, he spun, bringing the staff above his head with both hands and parrying the attack to the side. He slid his hands along the staff, holding it like a club, and struck hard at the man's head.

Ignoring the momentarily stunned man, Yomu quickly half-turned to look at the braided Anbu. He had gotten back up and was circling him like a shark, watching for any openings. Yomu didn't give him the chance, however, as he lunged with his longer weapon. The staff dipped, darting under the sword, bypassing the man's defense, and clipped his ankles out from under him.

The Anbu reacted quickly, and before Yomu could resume his attack, planted his free hand on the ground, backflipping out of his range. Yomu didn't give him a reprieve and advanced on him again. He whipped the staff at the man's middle but was stopped by a swift blocked. He tried again. Once. Twice. Finally, he caught the man at the sword wrist, his katana dropping to the ground. With three quick strikes; knees, groin, and ribs, the man folded over. As the man fell, Yomu charged his bō staff with wind chakra and plunged it straight into the hapless man's chest, killing him.

"You bastard!" The scene brought a growl from the still recovering taller enemy shinobi. He supported himself with his nodachi, holding it like a walking staff, the business end of it planted into the ground. The side of his head caked with sweat and blood from Yomu's strike.

His foe still wobbling, Yomu took the time to look at how Kai was doing. It… confused him. Kai wasn't fighting. He just sat there, immobile, with an impish grin on his face. His three opponents still surrounded him. And yet, they only stood, as if waiting for something to happen.

A dreadful theory came to his mind. Could this have been it? The reason for Kai's odd recent behavior. For the look on his eyes the morning before the mission. _'Did… did he set me up?'_ No. It couldn't be. They were brothers for God's sake. Best friends. Yet, he just stood there. Smiling at his supposed opponents. _'Or with them…'_

His thoughts were interrupted by a roar from his tall enemy. Yomu could feel the raw power of the man's chakra behind his rage; it was thick in the air, smothering him, as his internal turmoil choked him out.

When the man engaged him, Yomu fought a two-front battle. His mind warred against his heart just as much as his bō staff clashed with the tall man's long katana. He could tell he was he was more skilled. But he just wasn't in it. Try as he might, he kept coming back to his suspicion. It was one thing to think that Kai was hiding something from him. He could dismiss it as the boy just wanting his privacy. But this, to stand and grin when he was a few feet away, fighting for his life. It was undeniable.

He batted away a slash from the nodachi and jumped back to get some space. He couldn't afford to be thinking like that right now. He was fighting, damn it. And he was trained to drown out his emotions at all times, especially so during a mission.

He shook himself, trying to focus back on the situation at hand. His foe must have noticed his inattentiveness, for he charged with renewed vigor. His swings with more power behind them, the sword flickering from left to right, up and down, probing.

Yomu deftly parried and countered the attacks, meeting his foe halfway. But during a brief reprieve from the struggle—even though less than a minute had passed—he couldn't help but wonder if his distrust was warranted and glanced at Kai. The circumstances had changed, however. Drastically. Kai stood now with his tantō impaled through one of the kunai-wielding Anbu. Another was on one knee, holding a limp, bloodied arm to his side while the third one tried to help him.

 _'What is going on?'_ he thought, abashed at the new development.

The man saw his discomfort and quickly took the opportunity to lunge at him, except this time, his advancing foot came down hard on the floor, filled with chakra. A small ripple rushed outwards from his foot, enough that Yomu, his body half-turned to look at Kai, with one foot in front of the other in a defensive stance, rose with it. The long sword's lunge slipped beneath the bō staff's block and thrust deep into his side.

He gasped sharply. The sword was out as soon as it came in, taking with it Yomu's strength and balance. His knees wobbled, almost comically, banging against each other. The pain was white-hot, impossible to ignore, searing like holding burning coals in his bare hands. Alongside it, a gentler warmth spread at his side. He looked down to see blood gushing from the wound. It cascaded down his belly and leg, slowly pooling at the ground.

He fell on his knees, weak.

"Humph," the man grunted, sounding almost disappointed. "Just a kid, in the end. Can't believe Norata fell to you." He lifted his bloodied sword, readying it for the killing blow. "I hope you meet again with him in hell."

Yomu closed his eyes, accepting.

"YOMU!" Kai yelled from across the room. He heard it almost as a whisper. But still, he looked up.

The sword descended at him, unchallenged.

Then it didn't. Kai was in front of him, blocking the nodachi with his tanto. The clash of steel reverberating in the room.

Yomu almost chuckled, feebly thought it was. It looked to him like what Kai usually called a David versus Goliath moment. Whoever those people were. The towering, imposing foe against the diminutive hero. Even the weapons matched the description. The great field sword against the smaller, sturdy tantō.

Kai, uncharacteristically during a fight, snarled at his Goliath. "You…. I'm going to fucking kill you."

Goliath snorted. The last standing of Kai's three foes appearing beside him a moment later. "As much as I'd love to put a hole on you as I did to your friend here…" he trailed off, tapping his right foot on the ground thrice. Instead of forming ripples, the ground vibrated in a distinct rhythm. Not a second later, five other masked shinobi flooded the room through the door. Two more breaking through the window that faced the outside of the main house.

Yomu had a hard time registering what was happening. Everything he didn't focus on was a blur as he lost more and more blood. He tried to stanch it with his hands, but the blood oozed past his fingers with ease. He needed to use his Mystical Palm Technique. But from the little he could see, he knew he likely wouldn't have the opportunity to do so.

They were cornered, standing by the side of the short-legged table where he fought Goliath and the blonde man. He saw several other shapes circling them. Like sharks smelling blood, homing in for a meal.

Kai straightened out of his defensive stance in front of him. As if he had realized how foolish it made him look to want to fight that many adversaries. Then, he started reciting. "Then out spake brave"—he hesitated for a moment before picking up again—" _Haru_ , the not-so Captain of Root. To every man upon this earth death cometh soon or late. And how can men die better than facing fearful odds, for the ashes of his fathers, and the temples of his Gods?"

"What?" Goliath said. Yomu would have said the same if he could muster the strength.

"It would sound cooler if you could get the reference," Kai said irritably, turning to look at him. His gaze sharpened after taking a better look at Yomu's side. With four hand signs, he opened his mouth and spit out a large piece of rock that formed into an exact copy of him. "Get him out of here," he instructed his clone, making even more hand signs. "Whatever it takes."

Before any of the enemy Anbu could react, he slapped both hands on the ground. " **Earth Release: Earth Flow Divide** ** _(Doton: Dory_** _ **ū**_ ** _katsu)._** "

A fissure appeared under him, quickly running all the way to the wall behind them and up to the ceiling. The room shook and groaned, and the wall parted, like a book opening in half.

"Go!" Kai commanded. "I'll hold the bridge."

The rock clone picked him up and threw him over his shoulder. Yomu could tell he was trying to be gentle, but for him, it felt like being body slammed into concrete.

"Stop them!" Goliath ordered. The Anbu that had watched the whole scene develop moved to impede them as if they had their switch turned on. Hails of kunai flew their way and the narrow, upside-down conical form of their escape route offered no cover.

In a second, Kai was there to safeguard their retreat, intercepting the kunai. He blocked them; most with his tanto, some with his body. Yomu croaked out a weak call for his brother, but his voice failed him.

Then they were out into the night, Kai's clone spiriting him away. His tears joining his blood into soiling the clone's clothes.

xXx

(3rd Person Kai's Clone POV)

It had started raining. Heavily. Curtains of water fell on the trees in and around the courtyard, the wind howled against them and the boughs moaned their protests. The Koi fish had retreated against the rain's relentless bombardment, entering small crevices or staying far from the pond's surface.

 _'Good.'_ It would make their escape easier. The rain would wash away their tracks and the roaring thunders would mask his footsteps, pounding on the flagstones.

He was on the edge of the courtyard now, Yomu hanging limply on his shoulders. "Wait, please," Yomu wheezed. "We have to go back and help him."

"Listen," he said, running past the shrine they had gone by on their way into the complex. "If you want to help him, me, then heal yourself. You're half-past dead now, and I'm a clone. Besides, the tall prick said he would love to put a hole on the original, which means that he won't. For now, at least. They probably needed one of us alive for something."

Yomu just groaned in response, but a few seconds later he could see the green glow of the healing jutsu from the corner of his eyes. It was dull and muted, and it oscillated, flickering in and out of existence. But it was there.

He pumped his legs with chakra, trying to make good use of the head-start his original got for them. He had to take Yomu far from here, lose them in the forest. Perhaps find a cave or an overturned tree trunk where he could apply some first-aid, then hightail back to Konoha. Yomu would need proper medical attention. And his original would need rescue too. That is if Danzo deemed him worthy enough for it. He honestly didn't know if he would. Not after what just happened.

They made it all the way to the thickets by the walls of the compound; the city walls towering them. He was about to jump for it, but more Anbu dressed shinobi beat him to it, coming from the other side.

He couldn't fight them. He had Yomu to account for, and he only had one-tenth of the original's chakra, which he had been liberally using it to augment his legs since he made it out of Eike's room. No. Now, it was flight, not fight.

He pivoted on the ball of his foot and turned, running parallel to the walls. He made it out of the complex, vaulting over the battlements and into the city proper. He looked over his shoulders, mapping his pursuers run. Something seemed off about it. They weren't coming directly towards him. Instead, they ran to the walls and jumped to the battlements to continue the chase, as if making sure he stayed inside the walls, corralling him into the capital.

It didn't make sense. They couldn't be Konoha shinobi. The techniques those three used when he fought them, and their weapons as well. Even the use of the standard Leaf Anbu attire was made that more suspicious with the armband. No. They weren't from his village. Yet, they wanted him inside Hono. Inside the capital of the Land of Fire.

 _'God… whoever they are, do they have that much control over the city?'_ That implicated some very dangerous possibilities. He wouldn't even be able to alert the original about it. Being a Rock Clone, not a Shadow Clone, meant Kai wouldn't get his memories once he was dispelled.

He was forced deeper into the capital, taking to the rooftops to avoid the wide, open avenues.

The rain lashed at the slate roof tiles beside him, forcing him to use chakra on his feet soles to keep his balance lest he trip and fall. He could feel his already limited reserves diminishing, ticking away like a time bomb. He would break apart if his chakra came to an end or if he was struck with enough force. Or, of course, if the original Kai was knocked out or died.

He had to find a way to save Yomu, or at least give him more time. He was still working on his wound, the dim, green glow showing on peripheral vision, so perhaps he could just stay hidden until he was well enough to flee the city.

He continued going ever deeper, getting to a part of the city crisscrossed with winding, narrow streets, and alleyways. _'This is it.'_

Looking back, he saw his pursuers several rooftops away from him, but closing in nonetheless. Now that he was away from the walls, they seemed to redouble their efforts to catch up. He quickly dropped into the closest alley, landing on the flagstones in a crouch, and taking off, randomly taking corners and turns in an attempt to lose the enemy shinobi. While he ran, he looked around, searching for the perfect place to stash his charge. The streets were littered with large, metal trash bins, and casks and barrels made of wood. Clotheslines hung just above him, the few pieces still attached to them soaked by the rain.

Taking the next corner, he saw what he was looking for. _'There.'_

To his left, a stack of wooden crates sat in front of an abandoned looking building. Behind them, a beige-colored door, barred with wooden planks nailed to its frame, sat inside an alcove. It would hide Yomu from both their pursuers and the heavy rain.

He jumped over the crates and into the alcove, gently placing Yomu into the ground. Despite the added protection, rain still beat at them, carried over by the winds that blew throw the alleys. "Yomu," he said. "I'm going to try and lead them away from here, okay?"

Yomu's eyes half-opened. His head leaned on the rough ground, both hands held at his side on top of the wound, glowing a sickly green. He opened his mouth to say something but couldn't seem to muster the energy; he resorted to weakly nodding his head.

He wanted to stay there and care for Yomu. He wouldn't last long the way he was; wet, bleeding on the ground in a random alley. But even a small chance was better than nothing. He could dispel any moment now, and if he was running on rooftops while carrying Yomu, or just in sight of their pursuers…. This was the best option they had now, heart-wrenching though it was.

"Please," he whispered, kissing his brother's brow. "Just… survive."

Casting one last look at Yomu, lying in a heap on the ground, he jumped back into the alley and ran. He picked a small barrel up on the next street, using almost all his remaining chakra into transforming (Henge) it into a copy of Yomu. Then he kept running.

It didn't take long for the enemy shinobi to catch up with him. Only a few minutes after he dropped Yomu off at the small alcove, he was cornered by three of his pursuers. They didn't say anything—no taunts or insults. They just charged.

They didn't get the chance to finish him off, though. As they were about to skewer him with their swords, he dispelled, breaking off into pieces of rock, and leaving a barrel in the place of his wounded brother. His job was done.

xXx

(3rd Person Yomu POV)

The rain beat at his back.

He had—with much difficulty—turned around, covering his green-glowing hands with his body. He didn't want the light to attract the pursuers.

He had to survive. He had to. They wouldn't expect them back at Root for another four days. And he doubted they would do anything even if those days went by. An investigative mission, perhaps, to determine if they had simply failed their mission, or had actually deserted. They were still not full members, after all, even if they allegiance at that point was undisputed. But by then it would be too late. He was the only one that knew where Kai was. The only one that could save him. He _had_ to survive.

After what he did…. He couldn't let Kai die. He might not ever know, but he had broken his trust. He had let this Root-fueled paranoia fill his mind with intrigue and suspicion; with betrayal.

In the end, he was the one that betrayed Kai. He had doubted him, discrediting his brother's years of unfaltering loyalty for a fool's suspicion. A gaze here, unspoken words there, and he immediately thought deception. Then, when he saw Kai standing there, not fighting, he thought treachery. For all he knew, they could have been just sizing each other up or he might have been caught in a Genjutsu—Kai was terrible at it. Worst of all, his moment of mistrust cost him his fight, and subsequently, his brother.

Not two minutes after Kai's clone left him, his struggle turning paid off. He couldn't see them, but three separate pairs of footsteps splashed rainwater as they hit the wet flagstones in rapid succession, passing by his hiding spot and continuing down the alley.

His already painfully shallow breaths had hitched, his hands stopping their bright healing until he couldn't hear them anymore. It was hard starting his Mystical Palm Technique up again, but he did. He had to survive.

He laid there for a long time, shivering in the cold. He stopped counting the minutes after he first passed out. When he came to, he couldn't start his healing jutsu anymore, so he just pressed his hands, slick with either blood or water, to his wound. He couldn't tell if he was successful in stopping the bleeding. His head wouldn't turn enough for him to get a proper look, and his hands had lost feeling a long time ago. He pressed them anyway.

He had to survive.

* * *

 **A/N: Tried writing a little better this time. Let me know what you think.**


	7. Chapter 7

_**Summary:**_ _Dying and getting thrown into another world can be really liberating, especially if it's the world of Naruto. Just imagine the possibilities, with the future knowledge you would have to boot, they are truly endless. Or so you thought. A story in which our OC has to fix the Naruto timeline but ends up becoming a little too preoccupied trying to survive one of the deadliest destinies in the Naruto world._

 _ **Disclaimer:**_ _I do not own Naruto._

 _ **Warning:**_ _Rated T for violence, language, and suggestive adult themes._

* * *

Chapter 7

(3rd Person Shizune POV)

How she loathed this part of her 'job'.

It was the middle of the night; rain battered her from above while she walked back to their hotel. Shizune could still feel the grime of the place she had just been through her clothes. She would need a nice, long bath to wash the pipe-smoke smell of herself.

Although, technically, she was already having one, being soaked through and through as she was. How long had it been since it started raining? Three? Four hours? Not that it was that unusual. It was spring in the Land of Fire, after all.

Shizune heaved a tired sigh, sputtering the rainwater that traveled down her delicate face. Traveling with Lady Tsunade was the biggest dichotomy of her life. Perhaps in the next, she could decide if it was worth it or not. No, it definitely was.

Sometimes it was just very troublesome.

Still, she couldn't regret it. She wouldn't be the shinobi she was if it wasn't for it. Or the woman she was either. From everything she had learned with the Slug Princess, being confident in herself was what she prized the most.

Saving lives and counting dice were good and all but being able to step into a run-down gambling den full of wannabe thugs and hooligans in the middle of the slums of Hōno to negotiate her mistress' debt and walk out of it with her money and dignity intact was the real reward.

It wasn't her fault that one of the thugs had put his filthy hands on her, saying that she could "pay them some other way".

She was almost glad for it, in fact. In her books, that meant the debt was settled the moment it happened. She hoped he and his friends had learned their lessons too. A few of them had attacked her when she—politely—refused the one thug's advances and… well, she was sure none of them would be doing anything "some other way" for a long time.

In the past, Shizune would have never been able to do that. Not the ass kicking part. She came from a traditional ninja family and her uncle Dan, Tsunade's former lover, had taught her in the shinobi arts since she was a young girl. She was born between the end of the First Great Shinobi War and the start of the Second, and with the villages' tensions constantly on the rise, becoming a ninja was almost a guaranteed fate for someone born to a family like hers.

Of course, being taught by one of the Legendary Sannin, who was perhaps the strongest kunoichi of all time, had had a great effect on the development of her abilities. She doubted she would be as good as she was now, both in conventional shinobi skills and in medical ninjutsu—where Tsunade was peerless—if she hadn't come with the Sannin.

But that wasn't it. It was her confidence that had grown the most. Before accompanying Tsunade in her grief-induced journey, Shizune had been a shy, self-conscious young woman, always slinking in the background, reluctant to voice her opinions and make herself known.

Now, despite still having a somewhat bashful personality, Shizune could say with certainty that she would _not_ let anyone bring her down without giving them a piece of her mind.

Well, anyone but Tsunade anyway.

Still, despite her many vices, the Slug Princess had made one hell of an example as a woman that didn't bow to people undeserving of respect while Shizune was in her formative years.

Tonight, she had put all she had learned with her about self-assurance to test. She was not going to let some lowlifes paw her as they did without retaliating.

Tonight, and many others before, in fact. At that point, she was more than used to dealing with the messes it came with accompanying the Legendary Sucker. Oh, it still irked her alright. Especially on nights like that one. She had had to drag her drunk mistress—wailing and crying all the while— through the streets of the Land of Fire's capital, penniless after another failed attempt to recoup all her losses in one day. She had stopped counting all the times Tsunade supposedly had a godsent revelation to put all their money in one last bet.

In the end, Shizune had to go and be the reasonable adult of their party, trying to bargain with debt collectors and loan sharks. That had taken her deep into the capital's slums, through narrow alleys and poorly-lit corners. She had forgotten how the long, winding main streets leading from the city's gates to the Daimyo's Palace, lined with luxury stores, fancy restaurants, and outdoor markets, where the tourists usually stayed, were just a façade. A surface layer peeled to reveal the grim truth of the metropolis.

She was, however, primarily a combat medic. She knew her way around grime and gore and had dealt with it accordingly inside of that smoky gambling den.

She was used to it, sure. That didn't mean she enjoyed doing it. More so when she had to do it while drenched with rainwater. Oh, she would follow Tsunade in a two-man raid to the Fence Sitter's own office in the middle of a Konoha-Iwa war if it ever came to it. She was loyal to the Princess to a fault and she would stay traveling with her for as long as she needed time away from the Hidden Leaf Village. But she would cherish the day someone dangled the woman over their knees and taught her some sense.

Shizune was broken out of her thoughts when she stumbled, toe first, into a stack of wooden crates. _'So much for shinobi reflexes,'_ she thought, stifling a pained groan while she hopped with one foot and cradled the other in her hands. She leaned over the dilapidated red-bricked wall behind the crates for balance and leaned over to inspect her left foot closer. It had hurt alright, but she was surprised when she noticed the specks of blood beneath her sandal. Her toes seemed unblemished, so it couldn't have been hers. Perhaps it had happened in the den, but she was sure she hadn't bled any of them. Although she thought they would've rather she did that instead. It didn't mean it wasn't possible, however. Blood was one of the many fluids that ran freely in that sort of establishment; it wasn't inconceivable that she had stepped on previously present blood. But with all the puddles she had—unfortunately—stepped into, and the rain continuously washing over her on her way back from the den, it would be almost impossible for it to have stayed on her. No, she must have just stepped on it.

As if a switch had been turned, Shizune felt the metallic smell of blood. It was thick in the air now that she focused on it. Even with all the rain. It couldn't only mean one thing: a body.

From the lack of the rank, sickly sweet smell of a rotting corpse, she deduced it must have been a recently killed one. Her head turned to the most likely location of it. The stacks of crates and caskets would make an ideal spot for a quick corpse-dump-and-dash. Especially at night in a deserted, dim-lit alley like the one she was in. The small, watered-down trickle of blood seeping out from beneath one of the crates was all the confirmation she needed. To avoid landing atop the body on the other side, she moved the closest stack of wooden crates, making sure to avoid dropping the ones on top on the corpse.

There, underneath a small alcove, she found him. _'Oh heavens… a child.'_ The boy couldn't have been older than twelve years old. He faced away from her, towards the nailed down door, with his left arm wrapped around his body, hugging his right side. With her physician's mindset, Shizune's eyes quickly went to the likely cause of his death. Peeking through the boy's fingers, a clean stab wound cut deep into his side. It was mostly closed now as if someone had attempted to heal it, but the small yet significant puddle of blood around him belied it.

 _'He probably bled to death. How terrible.'_ She leaned down to turn the boy around. The least she could do is properly deal with his cadaver. Suddenly, the boy's chest shifted, as if struggling to take one last breath. Her hand, that had been reaching for the child's body, instinctually retracted. Her eyes widened and her own breathing hitched.

 _'Did he just….'_

Without thinking any further, Shizune rushed the unconscious boy. Her hands already glowing green as she turned and inspected him. He was alive! She could scarcely believe it. He should be dead. His raven hair framed a deathly pale face that would not look out of place in a three-day-old corpse. And the feel of his body… it made her shiver. He made the air feel warm.

She brought her healing hands to rest on his chest, prodding his heart to function. He wouldn't last any longer if his blood flow didn't normalize. Next, leaving one glowing hand over his heart, she led the other one to his right side, where the stab wound was. The use of medical ninjutsu on it was unmistakable. An injury like that one didn't close on its own. Yet the work was clearly of an amateur. It almost seemed… rushed.

Shizune blinked, her jaw gaping. _'By the gods. It can't be.'_

But the evidence was there. His clothes, now that she paid more attention to them, were clearly a shinobi's attire. The hurried nature of the—almost—patchwork job at his side; his own hands, resting atop the wound. He had done it himself. The puddle of blood around him wasn't enough to account for his ghastly complexion. He must have been bleeding for a while before being dumped there. And yet, he had had the presence of mind to use a high-level medical technique on himself. From a professional stand, it was nothing short of impressive. Shizune could count on two hands how many people she knew that could use the Mystical Palm Technique under severe pressure like that. It was a technique that required the utmost concentration and chakra control. Hell, she knew of experienced, licensed medic-nin that would blanch in high-pressure situations, or even when scrutinized by a superior. To be able to do it at such a young age, and with a gaping, bleeding wound as well. It scared her as much as it fascinated her.

Shizune gently picked the boy up, cradling him like a babe. She knew it might be dangerous. _He_ could be dangerous. His clothes and what he did spoke of a level of skill matching those of an elite shinobi. They were the Konoha Anbu standard attire if she remembered it correctly—black shirts and pants, with a grey flak jacket on top—and the fact that he had been taken out while operating inside the Land of Fire's capital also raised several questions. But in the end, what really weighted her decision, was that he was just a child. A child that would die if she did not intervene. She was a human being before she was a shinobi, and she would deal with the repercussions when they came. She would take him to hers and Tsunade's hotel room and care for him. She would get answers to her questions after he was healed.

xXx

Morning light filtered through the half-closed blinds of the main bedchamber. Kai would have loved to have been tenderly roused back to consciousness by it. It was, however, icy cold water dumped on his head that awoke him.

He gasped for breath only to swallow what seemed like an ocean's worth of water. He tried bringing his hands up to his face in an instinctual attempt to find a reprieve from the water's onslaught, only to find them trapped behind his body. He was tied to a wooden chair, with his hands tied behind him and his fingers further immobilized. In fact, all his body seemed to be bound. He would not be escaping any time soon with ninjutsu or any trick.

After what seemed like an eternity, the water flow atop him finally stopped. He spewed as much of water that had gotten into his trachea as he could and drew his first breath in a large gulp, as a starving man would after being denied food for weeks. Slowly opening his eyes, Kai took stock of his surroundings for the first time. His vision was muddled, both by the constant throbbing on the back of his head that bespoke the blow he had taken the night before, and by the water dripping from his soaked hair down his forehead and into his eyes, but he could still tell where he was. It was Eike's room. The same room they had fought in and were beaten the night before.

"Good," he heard a man say haughtily. "You're awake. I have been… eager to being." He heard heavy footsteps—that he assumed were from the speaker— moving away from him.

As the memories of their previous night's mission assaulted him, however, his thoughts were moving somewhere else entirely, to the more desperate depths of his mind. To his brother.

 _'Yomu!'_

He did not know if he had survived and it was unlikely that he ever would.

Faced with almost two squad's worth of enemies the night before, Kai could only muster a Rock Clone—which would not give him back information through his memories—to carry his brother out of there and hopefully take him back to Konoha for treatment.

He didn't know much about medicine beyond first aid, which every ninja should have in their repertoire, but the stab wound had seemed to have bitten deep into his side. Objectively, he wouldn't bet on survival. But this was Yomu he was talking about. He could not die like that: a trivial cut delivered by a half-witted, mammoth of a ninja during an even more stupid mission.

The worst of all is that he had known it would happen too. Perhaps not like this, but that it would come eventually, nonetheless. He had known their future was sealed for as long as they stayed in Root.

Oh, he had hopes that they wouldn't have to kill each other in the end, that Danzo would see them as being too valuable to risk with something like that. But even if that didn't happen, a Root operative's life expectancy was not something to be jealous about. Someday, in some mission, he or his brother might die.

He should have been more incisive when telling Yomu they needed to escape Root. He could have been. He knew that. They had had a few opportunities during missions in the past year where both were alone and would have several days of head start against any pursuit. It would not be easy staying out of Danzo's radar for long, and it would be just a hassle to live being an unofficial rogue ninja, but it was better than the alternative.

He wouldn't have the luxury of a choice any longer, though. That had ended the previous night.

A resounding clap followed by a stinging pain on the side of his face brought him out of his bleak thoughts.

"Fucking hell," he croaked, flexing the muscles of his face. He tried blinking the pain away, but it was as if he could still feel it vibrating on his skin.

He looked up squinting, still struggling with his burning face. His interrogator was tall, with a broad neck and even broader shoulders. He had a sadistic smirk on his face as he looked down on him. The man seemed genuinely ecstatic to be in that situation.

 _'Ah… one of those, then,'_ he concluded. That was not going to be fun for him.

It didn't mean, however, that he couldn't use that to his advantage. Information gathering was one of the focuses of his Root training and torture situations were often played out. Both as the tormentor and as the victim. An unprofessional torturer could be prodded for information without them even realizing what the victim was doing.

When the torturer was sadistic… it could go wrong, so very wrong, but getting information was even easier than from an amateur. Men like that liked to see their victim fully defeated, and when they did, they bragged. Kai would have to play into the man's hands, show him fake weaknesses, and nudge him into boasting about what he needed to find out.

First things first.

"Where…" Kai grunted out through gritted teeth. "Where is my brother?"

The man laughed. "Oh, that's rich," he said. "He was your brother, was he?" Kai nodded.

His captor turned to the side, pulling a field knife from his pocket and started picking at his nails. "Well, if you mean after I plunged my sword through him, I have no idea," he said, gauging Kai's reaction from the corner of his eyes. He gave the man what he wanted and further furrowed his brows, his bottom lip quivering.

"Hmph," the shinobi snickered. "He wasn't with your clone when we found him in the city, so he's still here, somewhere. Which means we will find him, one way or another. Probably his body—which is a shame. I'd love to fill him with even more holes."

The man turned then, pointing his knife at him. "But enough of that now. I have a few questions I wouldn't mind getting answers to."

That had turned out better than Kai expected. At least he had found out that his brother had not been caught, even if his clone had. He also knew his clone wouldn't just abandon Yomu for no reason. That meant he either had to do it because they were about to be caught, or that he had found a safe place for him.

The worst scenario would be his clone quickly ditching him so they wouldn't get caught together. But given how the man talked about finding him if he was still in the city, they would already have located him if that was the case. Which meant that either it did indeed happen, and someone else found him first, or his clone had left him in a safe spot.

"Here's how this is going to work," the man said. "I'm going to ask you a question and you're going to answer me honestly. If you don't, or if I even suspect you're lying, I'll hit you. Pretty simple game if you ask me."

He wanted to tell him that he could kiss his ass but was ultimately afraid that he would follow up on the request and decided to simple nod back. The man grinned, pulling out a chair that he had not noticed before and sat on it backward, right in front of Kai. "What can you tell me about your organization?"

He had to use all his training to refrain from widening his eyes. Root was a very secretive group—even now in Konoha, its existence was on a need to know basis. This man, and consequently whichever group he belonged to, knowing about it was a problem.

He put his most confused and innocent face together and answered. "What?"

He was not surprised when his head was bouncing off the ground, the back of the chair doing little to soften the fall. His vision grew hazy, and all the air that had fled his chest from the impact seemed to come back all at once.

"Now, now," he heard. "What did I say about lying?" The man was looking down at him with a reproachful tone, but the sick smile plastered on his face belied its verity. "I'll make this easier for you—let's start with a name. What do you call your little group?"

Kai saw no point in withholding that information from him. It would also help to establish the man in the position he wanted—of power and control—if he told a few truths here and there. The few he could even utter, at least. "Root," he said. "Its name is Root."

His interrogator's smile widened, and he let out a small chuckle. Soon, he was cackling. "Oh, wow," he said, wiping his teary eyes. He pulled Kai's chair back up to standing. "I can't believe that's the group's name. You tree-huggers are just precious, aren't you? Root! Of course it had to be a root."

It was not hard for Kai to connect the dots. The red armband; the earth ninjutsu; and now the name calling. "You're from Iwa, then," he deduced. "And you were expecting us—someone from Root. How could Iwa anticipate one of us would come?"

"You don't even know, do you? I guess they didn't bother explaining it. It makes me wonder if this is really the special group we have been looking for. You see, it is—officially—forbidden for nobles to hire assassins in the Land of Fire." At Kai's unbelieving look, the man's lecturing tone intensified. He could see he was enjoying it—having knowledge Kai didn't. "During the last Fire Daimyo's reign, his nobles vied for his favor so much they were killing each other. As a true tree-hugger, he made it illegal for nobles to employ shinobi for assassination purposes and proclaimed that Konoha couldn't take any murder requests from them either. But nobles need assassinations for a plethora of reasons, not only to do away with political rivals, and Konoha is a military village; they need the income, and assassinations pay _very_ well after all."

His eyes widened, realization hitting him in full. "Indeed," the Iwa shinobi said, smirking. "While Konoha doesn't take assassination missions from nobles, it still technically does. The Leaf's Regular Corps and even your Anbu can't really touch those jobs. But you…." He put his long knife against Kai's cheek, dragging it towards his chin so a thin line formed behind it—small trickles of blood soon trailing down to his jaw. "Yes, your 'Root' can. Officially, you are nothing more than another branch of the Konoha military. But it's more than that, isn't it? You harbor a specific type of shinobi—a very dangerous type. Shinobi that don't exist; shinobi that can take this kind of job. So, when we 'faked' this little mission, we knew that one of you would come."

"That's…" he trailed off looking down, trying to make sense of what he had learned.

That was a lot of information for a foreign shinobi to have on Root. He knew that the other nations were aware of the special branch of the already special Anbu of Konoha. But to have information on the ghosts of Root, those without family and no formal association with the village, was alarming. That was the whole point of them—him—being ghosts; to be untraceable, with no connections or allegiances. _'And to target us specifically…'_

"Why?" he whispered as if to himself, purposefully quiet yet loud enough for his captor to overhear.

"Why what?"

"Why go to such lengths just to capture one of us? If it was information on Konoha's defenses you wanted, why not just abduct a regular Anbu? Hell, a regular Jōnin even."

"Oh, you don't have to worry about our knowledge of Konoha's defenses," he said slyly, standing up and walking to a small table that sat to the side of the half-opened windows. "Iwa is well versed in those. Our reasons for going after your organization is more… personal."

Kai couldn't see the articles that occupied the table from where he rested, but the creaking and clanking of metal as the man rummaged through its contents were enough to clue him in. He wouldn't like what came next.

"Our village has been losing quite a lot of business for the past few years, you know? A considerable portion of Iwa's income comes from requests by our neighboring countries. Small Hidden Villages like Grass, in Stones, Rain, and Waterfall can't deal with the whole influx of missions from their countries, so often the villages of the Five Great Shinobi Countries are contracted in their stead." The man continued his explanation as he searched the table, often pausing to inspect a device or other. "In recent years, however, requests for Iwa's shinobi have decreased significantly coming from those countries. Particularly those that share borders with both the Land of Earth and the Land of Fire. Obviously, we investigated it."

He paused, turning to give Kai a dark look. "You can guess our surprise when we found reports of Iwa shinobi—red attire and forehead protector and all—attacking small villages and towns in those countries and on the outskirts of the Land of Fire."

Kai twitched slightly on the chair. He checked if his captor had noticed and sighed relieved—he was back rummaging the table. _'That's what this is about, then,'_ he thought. _'They found out who was_ really _behind those raids.'_

"As ironic as it sounds," he said, "we set secret protective details close to communities in Grass, Waterfall, Ame, and even in the Land of Fire that matched the _modus operandi_ of whoever was behind those attacks." The man singled out one instrument, holding it up to the sunlight, his large frame still blocking Kai's vision of it. "Ah, this is it then?" He murmured to himself. "I've been meaning to test it out."

He turned then, pocketing the object. "Where was I? Right, the attacks. Well, we intercepted one in a small settlement in the southern border of Grass. The attackers were clothed exactly as reported—as Iwa-nin." The man crossed the room as he spoke, reaching a large chest placed against the eastern wall—the one that opened to the courtyard—and unlocking it. "We captured a few of them alive, but let me tell you, they were… relentless. Uncompromising. They would do the utmost to either resist enough that we had to kill them, or simply just explode themselves." He chuckled, shaking his head as if recalling a fond memory. "This one bitch—who we had tied up almost like you, as secure as we thought possible—cut herself with her own pinkie. Next thing we know her brain is literally leaking out of her ears and eyes and nose."

 _'Sounds about right,'_ he thought. Standard procedure for any ninja was to avoid capture at all costs, and for an Anbu that was even more stressed. In Root though, they could get _really_ creative with that concept. Those who knew of the Reverse Four Symbols Sealing—the one Danzo used to kill himself—or at least a derivative of it, and found themselves in a situation where capture was almost a certainty, were encouraged to indeed surrender and let themselves be taken into custody, only to blow themselves up at a more opportune moment when they could take as many enemies with them as possible.

"This is what got our interesting though," the man said, picking out a pair of manacles connected by a thick, metal chain from the dark wooden chest and waving it menacingly at him. "We ran background checks and screenings on the ones we did manage to restrain. With all Iwa's connections, we couldn't find anything about them. They weren't in the Bingo Book. They had no history, no parents or family or home village. No one had ever seen or heard of them. It was like they didn't exist. Like they were… ghosts." He gave Kai a pointed look, watching for any reaction, but he wore his mask of innocence as easy as his blank Anbu one.

The man shrugged. "Now, we never publicly divulged this much, but Iwa has encountered these shinobi before." That got a small frown from Kai. "Oh, yes. During the Third Great Shinobi War, they were our biggest thorn on the side—besides that butcher Yellow Flash, of course. The Land of Earth's capital and even our village were constantly targeted with bombings, assassinations, and mass poisonings. All done by shinobi we couldn't trace back to any village and that found inconspicuous ends. So, when we recently received intelligence that Konoha had some sort of secret organization active, plus the raids on the bordering countries… well, its two on two."

"I see," Kai acquiesced. "You want further information on Root, then?"

"Numbers, locations, names. You know the drill, I'm sure."

"I'm aware of it, yes," he said. "What makes you think you'll get anything out of me if you couldn't with the ones you captured before?"

"I am _extremely_ glad you asked that," the man said cheerily. "Two reasons, really. The boring one is that we have been harassing Konoha on the Land of Fire's borders, purposefully trying to attract your top shinobi. We figured your group would be involved in the more covert operations there and would send less reliable ninja here."

"That makes me feel great…" Kai said, hiding his worrisome thoughts. There was no way Iwa would initiate one of the biggest skirmish campaigns inside Konoha's protected lands since the Third Great Shinobi War for the sole reason of capturing a Root agent. Something else was at play.

"The fact you don't deny it makes it even better." The man snorted. "But the second reason—which I have to admit is my favorite—is that we have upped our game!"

He walked around Kai then, carrying the heavy-looking manacles under his arms as if they weighted less than a feather. Kai turned his head, trying to gauge his captor's actions, only to get a swift elbow to the face.

"Ah, ah, ah," the man chided. With a split lip, he didn't try again.

Soon, he was uncomfortably dangling from the ceiling by his manacled hands that were still tied behind his back. It was an awfully awkward position, and he even considered purposefully dislocating his shoulder so that his arms could fully extend, and his feet touch the ground, but he suspected that the large man would not take kindly to him diminishing his punishment. He would have to endure.

He heard a satisfied sigh. "Much better now. You look like a duck ready for the pounding."

 _'God, that's wrong on so many levels,'_ he thought, cringing. _'What the fuck are they doing in Iwa…'_

"Now," the man said, striding back to face him, "on to lighter things." He reached into his coat's pocket and took out a scalpel knife. It was large for a scalpel, with a small orange tube running along the top of its blade. "This is how we've upped our game. Tell me, have you ever heard of the Kamizuru Clan?"

"Yes, they're bee users from your village."

"Precisely," his captor replied. "They were a prestigious clan from Iwagakure once, the First Lord Tsuchikage—may the all-consuming earth shelter him—being a member and all. But when their supposedly infallible invasion of Konoha floundered a few years after the war, they lost their standing and fell into disgrace. Fast forward to last year, they came up with this little beauty here, a special apitoxin that acts as a nervous stimulant. Of course, when they offered it to our Interrogation Department, we said it was next to useless, but we'd buy it regularly just to help them out. And since they can't legally sell to any other village… well, it's just good business isn't it."

Kai shook his head. "You guys are dicks even to your own compatriots."

The man scowled. "What does that tell you about _your_ future, then, tree hugger?" Despite himself, Kai shivered. This little play might have earned him some eye-opening intelligence, but it would be of no consequence when he eventually died there.

Yes, that was his future. He would be tormented first, starved, beaten and mutilated. Then his torturer would eventually conclude that he couldn't say anything of importance on Root even if he wanted to. Or he would just tire of Kai's screams.

Then he would die.

The large man stepped up, looming above him despite Kai's position. With a mighty yank, he tore his dark blue shirt off his body and flung it to the side.

"Now, who leads Root?"

He wanted to answer, really. He wouldn't sell out his comrades, and he could even claim allegiance to Konoha, but he had none for Danzo; if he could, he would have answered before his captor even asked. "I—I can't say it."

Leaning into Kai's ear—his hot breath prickling his skin—the man spoke. "Wrong answer." He brought the scalpel up, its blade seething with the bee venom like a snake and cut shallowly on Kai's chest.

He did not even twitch—at first. The cut was small and shallow, running for only an inch along his skin. Soon, it tickled; then it burned; then it seared; finally, it scorched. It was unlike anything he had ever felt. His insides just below the wound were surely melting. His lungs felt like they were turning to ashes, shriveling and dying beside his heart. He screamed, his agony seeping into the air.

The man laughed.

xXx

(Itachi 3rd Person POV)

He stood in the shadows between the two bronze statues, facing the man he was obliged to serve.

As always, Itachi showed nothing on his face. He didn't flinch at the roaring thunders that rolled across the livid black clouds, nor at the icy wind that accentuated the night's chill. He masked the weariness he felt deep into his bones after another day of service. And harder of all, he concealed his distaste for the words that Danzo spewed.

"Despite what the Hokage said," the elder began, "when push comes to shove, he will do whatever it takes to protect the Hidden Leaf. I want you to choose now. Align with the Uchiha and launch the coup d'état, and be slaughtered with your family… or side with Konoha, and before they attempt the coup, eliminate every Uchiha except your younger brother"

He staggered, taken aback. _'Eliminate the Uchiha…'_ he tried the words in his mind, mortified. Despite his allegiance lying ultimately with the village, he still valued his clan as one of the most important things for him. The few people that he deeply cared for in his life were a part of it, and even their foolish views on clan pride could not erase that.

Soon after their meeting with the Leaf's High Council and the Hokage, he was summoned by the elder to rendezvous at the old shinobi shrine behind the hills of the Hokage Mountain.

The Council had been discussing how to handle the Uchiha situation and had reached an understanding when the Hokage vowed to attempt to reach a non-violence compromise with the founding clan.

For Itachi, it was more than what he allowed himself to hope for.

He should have known that Danzo would not be as lenient as the Sarutobi Hokage planned on being.

Danzo didn't appear to have noticed his wariness at his words and just plowed on. "In order to protect the village, every step must be taken to avoid mayhem. The only one that can handle this mission is you, a double agent for both the Uchiha and the Leaf."

He didn't know what to think. "There is no one else, Itachi," Danzo said. "Will you accept this mission?" Lighting struck down behind him, framing the bandaged face of the Root leader as he walked out of the small platform they stood on.

Danzo left without even hearing his answer. He had purposefully left the third option unsaid so that Itachi understood it himself.

If he didn't follow through with the mission, Danzo would use his Root soldiers to preventively strike at his clan, exposing their plans and forcing the rest of the village regular corps into the fray.

The Uchiha, his brother included, would perish.

* * *

 **A/N: Kind of busy with uni right now so I can't write much.**


	8. Chapter 8

_**Summary:**_ _Dying and getting thrown into another world can be really liberating, especially if it's the world of Naruto. Just imagine the possibilities, with the future knowledge you would have to boot, they are truly endless. Or so you thought. A story in which our OC has to fix the Naruto timeline but ends up becoming a little too preoccupied trying to survive one of the deadliest destinies in the Naruto world._

 _ **Disclaimer:**_ _I do not own Naruto._

 _ **Warning:**_ _Rated T for violence, language, and suggestive adult themes._

* * *

Chapter 8

He stumbled from behind the burning building. His vision, although hazy, was enough to make out the vast openness of the courtyard of the garrison.

The earth still shook occasionally, groaning as if the night's fighting was still ongoing. The walls surrounding the complex were mostly down; the sections still standing were stained with broad black smears. Large chunks of rock were scattered, some bulging out of the ground as if they had a will of their own. Among them, corpses. The whole battalion that occupied the advanced outpost lay dead in the courtyard, their bodies marred with scorch marks or torn apart limb by limb.

Some, probably his victims.

He had lost control at one point, friend or foe becoming inconsequential in his rage. His fires had burned everything around and within him. Now, all the fight had left him.

His face protector was destroyed, his beard singed on the ends and his nose a bloody mess. Yet, he couldn't summon his arms up to comfort himself. Arm, that is, single. His left one had been lost not ten minutes into the confrontation. The right arm hung uselessly beside him now, a bone piece jutting out from his biceps.

The cries and moans of the dying still echoed in his ears, though the courtyard was silent now. None survived the night—at least none that he could see—but their hallowing pleas would haunt him forever. He hadn't much love for the men of the garrison, or any men from his country besides a select few, but this… they hadn't deserved such fate.

He looked up from the carnage, scanning for the attackers. He found them not a hundred feet away. The three men stood impassively, staring at him as hawks would a wounded rabbit. There was no urgency to their movements once they started towards him, there was no need for it.

The hairs on his armed stirred, and he felt a coldness spread through his body. Suddenly, he was rooted to the ground, his already sluggish legs not obeying his commands. Something was wrapped around him, something real.

The man closest to him laughed. It rasped through the air, and the memories of that same laugh from the previous night made him shiver. "Send the message as soon as we get back," he said. "Tell him we have it."

The second man—the one with the constant smirk on his face—nodded, approaching him from the side. The last of the three hung back, not a shred of empathy on his blank face. Even he found it hard to imagine what could make one so young be so aloof in the face of this much bloodshed. He felt lucky now that his nose was in such state—even he had never gotten used to the smell of burnt flesh.

The smiling man circled him, and he had to strain his neck to keep him on his sight. He was young as well, decades younger than he was, but his eyes showed naught but malice.

His reserves flared inside him momentarily, as if urging him to fight back, to resist just one more time, but his body itself was spent, so much so that he almost felt detached from it. He saw the reason for it just a second too late, glancing at it from the corner of his eyes—a metal needle jutting out of his neck.

Black started filling the corner of his eyes, and the searing pain he had been feeling through his frame was no more. Faintly, he heard incoming footsteps, and the first man was already in front of him.

The man reached with an outstretched hand, and if he could he would have flinched away. Almost fondly, the man stroked his beard, ignoring the grime and that sparks that still burnt there. "What a nice surprise it was, finding you stationed so close to the Land of Fire." The man tilted his head. "Almost makes me wonder why…"

From the back, a new voice spoke, and he assumed it came from the younger man—though boy would fit him better. "We should leave now. We've been here all night, someone is bound to come and check, or a patrol might pass by and notice the smoke."

The man in front of him chuckled, lowering his hand. "Perhaps we should," he said, looking at his companion. "We have what we came for after all."

The man turned to him again, lips moving as if to say something, but he suddenly couldn't hear anymore. His head lolled in place and would have fallen if it wasn't being held. His eyes felt like they were being pulled down by lead. The courtyard slowly faded from existence, burning away into darkness.

Emotions raced by him all at once, close but not within his reach. Then, as suddenly as they came, they were gone, fleeing across the black expanse that now surrounded him. He felt like floating in icy cold water, with only his heartbeat, pounding loudly in his chest, to affirm he was still alive.

Occasionally, that foreign yet familiar heat, like a furnace opening its maw, would warm the water. Then, it would scald it.

It didn't reach him though, it couldn't. Not anymore. Not there. He was beyond it now, and he didn't know if he should be glad for that or not.

Something else was there too, slithering by him once, twice. It was even colder than the water, and chills would run along his bones whenever it approached.

It was gone in just another heartbeat and it didn't come back.

Time passed. Or it didn't, he couldn't say. The heat was no more, going dormant. He was truly alone now, and he could barely remember a time when that was the case.

He let himself go, to drift away into nothingness.

xXx

(3rd Person Yomu POV)

Yomu opened his eyes and found himself staring at a samurai battle—cheap ceiling canvas style. For a moment he only lay there, frowning. His memory of what had happened coming to him in patches needing to be pieced together.

He remembered the mission and the ambush well enough. He had gotten distracted in a fight, gone down and become a liability. After that, it was a mess. Like a deck of cards thrown at a table, parts of his memory were faced down. They were there alright, but he had to fish for them and turn them over.

Suddenly remembering his training, he closed his eyes again, trying his hardest to stabilize his breathing. For all he knew he was captured behind enemy lines and gathering information without giving any was paramount.

Yomu tried getting the feeling the room. He couldn't sense around with his chakra lest one of his potential captors noticed it, so focusing on his senses, he concentrated. He could hear the cacophony of a busy city street coming from somewhere on his right, and the gentle light filtering from around the same place could only mean an open window. _Not exactly textbook prisoner detainment,_ he thought.

The quick glimpse he had gotten from the ceiling when he had his eyes opened didn't indicate much either. The painting seemed old and was crusting on the ends. _A run-down house, perhaps._

Next, he took a deep breath through his nose. The air seemed… clean—too clean to be anywhere abandoned. In fact, it smelled just like the medical bay back at Root. Surreptitiously, he felt at his covers, his fingers sliding smoothly against the satin sheets. _Not a hospital, then_.

Not hearing anyone else in the room, he would try opening his eyes again. A door creaked open right then, and sure steps clip-clopped on wooden floor. They didn't seem secretive but held obvious caution in their gracious pace.

 _Shinobi_ , he decided.

Yomu relaxed further, feigning deep sleep. The person stopped by the side of his bed and Yomu could almost feel their gaze assessing him. Cloth rustled for only a second, and without warning, he felt wire tightening around him, tying him to the bed.

He couldn't even move his fingers beneath the covers.

"Forgive my manners," he heard a feminine voice say. "But when a patient—who's clearly a shinobi—I'm not familiar with is fake asleep in bed I must take preventive measures, you understand."

Yomu opened his eyes—it would be futile to continue pretending. He blinked the sudden lighting away and turned, focusing on the black-haired woman next to him. She looked to be of average height, with delicate features that belied the strength that surely hid beneath her charcoal kimono. "How did you know?"

She smiled. He could tell it was genuine too, for it touched all the way to her faintly creased black eyes. "What? That you were a shinobi or that you weren't sleeping?"

"Both," he said, trying to be assertive.

She pointed to a pile of garments stacked neatly atop a small mahogany desk at the far end of the room. "The shinobi part was easy enough. You don't see a lot of city folk wearing Anbu black-ops clothing, do you?" She turned back to him and her smile dropped. "Nor young boys like yourself."

"You'd be surprised," he said cryptically. Wanting to avoid the unspoken question he saw in her pursed lips, Yomu quickly added, "and that I wasn't actually sleeping?"

"Simple," she said. "Your behaviors didn't match."

Yomu raised an eyebrow. "How so?"

"Your breathing changed as soon as I walked in. It spiked for a second then it calmed just as quick. A medical-nin can spot things like that from a mile."

"People's breathing can change when they're sleeping," he countered.

"Sure they can. And it can mean anything from nightmares to bouts of fever and cold sweat or sleep apnea. Or… that they weren't asleep at all, of course. And, if you were having a nightmare or was uncomfortable in any way there would be other signs." She pulled the covers down until his shoulders were bared and nodded at his skin. "No perspiration and you've had your color back for a while now, and your eyes were not moving beneath their lids at all. If you were disturbed enough for your breathing to spike, they would be shifting from side to side."

Not willing to give her the situational high ground, Yomu tried another approach. "I can tell you're a shinobi as well. What's your allegiance?"

"My allegiance is somewhat private," she said, but Yomu's unsatisfied frown prompted her to continue, "though I am technically a Konoha Jōnin."

He smiled victoriously. "Perfect, then. As you said so yourself, I am an Anbu operative, currently on a very important mission. And as an Anbu, I'm your superior when it comes to matters pertaining to the security of the village. I order you to unbind me and further provide some much-needed information."

The woman raised her eyebrow, clearly surprised at his demanding tone. Then her features suddenly shifted, an overly pleasant smiled gracing her face. "Oh, and what will that be, Anbu-sama?"

"Well," he said. "You can start by releasing me. I've wasted enough time in bed."

The wires that held him untwirled and retracted into her long sleeves with a flick of her wrist. "By all means," she said eagerly, amusement dancing in her eyes.

He snickered at her condescending tone and propped himself on his elbows, ready to sit up.

He didn't get that far. At the slightest movement, pain seared in his abdomen, a burning worse than branding iron. His body curled up on itself into something fetal instinctively, and it seemed as if every muscle in his body that had worked in that movement mutinied, cramping and spasming, robbing Yomu of his ability to think straight.

With a breathless gasp, he righted himself back in bed, feeling as taut as the fabric of a fat merchant's shirt. Soft hands came to rest at his side and eased the agony that boiled in him, and from the corner of his unfocused eyes, he could see a warming green glow coming from them.

His body still shook when the fair-skinned woman spoke again. "The wound is completely closed and is unlikely to open again, but I advise you not to strain yourself for a few more days." She sighed, shaking her head almost in shame. "Sometimes the best way to make a patient understand their situation is with a little demonstration, though I'm not a big fan doing it."

The woman let one glowing hand go of his abdomen and stretched it towards the nightstand, grabbing a small white towel. Gently, she wiped at his forehead, now slick with sweat. The bedsheets were in total disarray with his tossing and turning, only barely covering his nakedness. Yomu noticed his body was covered with a fine sheen of perspiration despite the coldness that he suddenly felt wrapping around him. The lack of covers wasn't the problem, it was a warm spring day, yet with a shaky hand he brought them up to his neck, taking comfort in their safety.

"How about we start over," she said. "We haven't even introduced ourselves. My name is Shizune, nice to meet you."

Yomu looked intently at the woman, Shizune, for any signs of deception or hostility. There were none. Sometimes it was hard for him to realize that not everyone was out to get him as he had been taught so in Root.

Feeling tired, and more importantly, foolish, for treating the person that had been taking care of him the way he did, Yomu relented, suddenly not able to meet her eyes.

"I'm Yomu," he said softly, face burrowed in the tan-colored covers. Gods, he felt like a scolded child, not the killer he was trained to be.

"What happened to me?" he asked.

Shizune smiled, looking at him with as much compassion as anyone but Kai ever had. "I found you in a back alley…" she trailed off, taking a deep breath. "Bleeding, with a wound to your side. It's a miracle you survived at all given how much blood you seemed to have lost.

"To answer your early questions," she continued, turning and nodding to the open window overlooking a boulevard. "You're in the inner city of Hōno, in our apartment hotel, and you've been out for two days now."

Yomu nodded along, soaking in the valuable information and trying to remember the circumstances that led to him being there. He recorded being stabbed at Eike's manor by that large fellow… but that was that. How he had gotten to an alley near the inner city of the capital he couldn't tell.

 _Two days_ , Yomu thought, frowning. Memories brushed the back of his mind, yet he couldn't seem to get a hold of them. Like grabbing a handful of sand, his memories trickled down through his fingers.

Shaking his head, Yomu turned to look out the window, needing to refresh his mind.

Outside, the wide avenue of paving stones was brimming with the early morning activities. Carts lined the street with merchants displaying their wares, fruits and vegetables and grains of all kinds available. Despite winter only just coming to an end, the tables of the many noble and merchant families of the capital of the Land of Fire would not go wanting for any out of season crops. Dozens of wagon trains full of foodstuff entered Honō every week, imported and protected by the Daimyō and his forces, to satiate his court and the rich of the city. What was left—the rejects of the nobility—was sold at the public markets.

 _Probably still better than what we get back at the base,_ Yomu thought.

On the sidewalks, shopkeepers hollered out offers at passersby to attract customers and housewives hustled and haggled over the price of produce, many with small children hanging at their waist. At one alley entry, a small crowd had formed around a street performer handling four kunai with his eyes blindfolded as easily as if he was juggling bouncing balls.

Yomu grimaced, the display of the flying kunai perplexing him. He was a shinobi, so the sight of it wasn't necessarily new to him, but now it seemed… urgent, somehow.

Images flashed by his mind's eye. _Kunai flying…Blood…_

He reached out to them desperately, as a drowning man would for air. Yet, they always seemed an inch out of his grasp.

 _Kai…_ the thought bubbled to the surface, visible yet out of reach. It seemed to call out to him, demanding his attention.

Puzzled by the suddenness of it, Yomu shook himself and delved back into his mind. Using all his training from Root, specific escapism techniques for torture endurance, Yomu concentrated, focusing on his brother. Solely on his brother.

As easy as that, the images came. Like a floodgate being torn open, the memories of the mission poured out the confines of his subconscious, assaulting him with the truth.

 _Fleeing on the shoulder of Kai's clone. His unwarranted suspicion, distracting him from the fight. Blood pooling on the ground. The hail of kunai flying and Kai's body blocking it. The cold wet pavement against his weakened frame._

They were only fragments, a mishmash of memories without any order, but one thing was made clear to him.

He had failed his brother. More than just abandoning him; more than just being the reason for his capture, maybe even his death, Yomu had doubted him. Doubted the only living kin—if not by blood, then by heart—he had left. Doubted the loyalty of the only person who had ever deserved _his_ loyalty _._

What a fool he had been.

Unshed tears gathered in his eyes, and Yomu didn't think he should wipe them away. He didn't deserve to.

Shizune put a hesitant hand on his shoulders, taken aback by his sudden display of emotion, but kept her silence.

With all the self-loathing he was feeling, something else crept up too, sweeping down his spine and firing up his aching muscles.

Determination.

He wouldn't abandon Kai again, nor doubt him. He would find him—alive, hopefully, but if not…. Yomu shook the thought away. It didn't matter, he would find him regardless.

"I need to go," Yomu said firmly. "Immediately."

Shizune sighed, her hand squeezing his shoulder amicably. "You're not my prisoner Yomu. Not at all. But you're in no condition to go anywhere. You wanted to, just now, and look how that went."

"I didn't have a good enough reason." He pulled the covers down to his waist and took a deep breath. He sat up in one movement, stifling a scream by biting down his bottom lip till it bled. His abdomen was tight with pain, white hot and scorching, it radiated through the rest of his body.

"Then, I wanted," Yomu said through gritted teeth. "Now, I must."

He formed the necessary hand seals for the Mystical Palm Technique. The pain tried to stifle his focus—his hands barely glowing with the healing jutsu. But his resolve was solid on the back of his mind and he powered on, curbing down his discomfort and stabilizing the flow of chakra to his hands.

To his side, Shizune nodded to herself, muttering something under her breath as if confirming a suspicion.

Ignoring the woman's strange behavior, Yomu hovered his hands over his naked side, checking the wound. It was fully closed now, though it still showed an angry red. He delved further into the injury, and soon knew why it hurt so bad. Parts of it, on the inside, were still badly inflamed. It wasn't hard to figure out that the irritated patches were the ones he had worked on before passing out, and the healthy scar tissue was Shizune's handiwork.

He spent the next couple minutes in silence, hands on his side, trying to find a way to fully cure the inflamed bits. He could barely hold himself in a fight in this state, let alone break into an enemy base and save his brother.

He continued the jutsu for few more minutes, though he had known it from minute one. Medical ninjutsu had its limits. The human body needed time above all to heal. Yet, he had none.

Yomu pursed his lips, turning to the black-haired woman. "Is there any way to accelerate the healing process on this?"

"I tried," she said. "Truly, I did. But it's beyond my expertise." Shizune sighed, her next words coming almost as a whisper. " _She_ could but…"

"What?"

Shizune made a dismissive gesture. "It doesn't matter."

"Please," Yomu said. "I know you've already done enough, but if there's some other way… Please, I'll do anything. Anything at all."

"What could be so urgent?"

Shizune shook her head as if remembering something important. "In fact, what _really_ happened? Why are you here? Why was an Anbu lying bleeding in a back alley in Honō? And why—in the name of everything that's sacred and holy—is a ten-year-old child in Anbu?"

Yomu looked down. "I… I can't say it."

Shizune huffed. "I'm well aware of the need for secrecy in Anbu," she said. "But we are way past that now. Besides, I'm not asking you to divulge your mission's details."

Yomu shook his head. "You don't understand," he said. "I really cannot say it." He opened his mouth, focusing a small amount of chakra there. A black seal, darker than night, appeared, contrasting the red of his tongue. The hexagram—five thick lines, the top three solid and the bottom two broken—could mean many things. Yomu always thought there was one interpretation that represented its true nature better: concealment.

Shizune let out a gasp, both hands covering her mouth in shock.

"There's very little I can tell you," Yomu said, "so I'll be as brief as possible. I'm from Root, a special branch of Konoha's Anbu. I was on a mission here… with my brother." He sighed. "He's not my real brother—we were partnered up at Root. But… it doesn't matter, he _is_ still my brother and the only family I have left."

Yomu paused, turning to look out the window. He didn't want to be seen with tears streaming down his face.

The people of Honō went about their business outside. The mundane, everyday atmosphere of it in contrast to Yomu's distressed soul. The feelings of dread he had been trying to ignore hit him like a storm now, twisting at his heart. For all he knew, his brother was gone. Dead.

Despite what the large enemy ninja had said about needing him for questioning, two days would be enough for them to realize that Kai would never say anything of value. He couldn't.

And in the shinobi world, a useless prisoner is a dead prisoner.

"We were ambushed and… I made a mistake," Yomu said, still facing the window. "I got distracted and let my guard down. That's when I got this." He put one hand over his wounded side. "Things are fuzzy after that, but my brother saved me and made a clone to carry me out. That's how I ended up where you found me."

Yomu sat quietly for a long moment. "He got injured covering my escape," he finally said. "Chance's are he's dead by now. But… I need to try. I need to go back for him. He's my younger brother…. I can't abandon him again. I _won't_ abandon him again."

"Damn it, Shizune," Yomu heard a commanding voice from the other side of the room. "I told you that helping this brat would only bring trouble."

Alarmed at not sensing the person's approach, Yomu turned, shaking—yet swift—hands going for a non-existing kunai pouch.

A stunning fair-haired woman stood at the door sill. She was tall—above the average for women. A dark-blue obi, similar to Shizune's white one, held close a grey kimono-style blouse. Atop it, an open green haori sat on her shoulders, framing an alluring figure. The most beautiful woman he had ever seen, Yomu reckoned.

Yet, as he focused on her, all his senses screamed of danger. Not an immediate threat, but the prospect of a most painful death if he were to go up against her.

Seeking for confirmation, his eyes instantly narrowed on her forehead. A small, violet diamond shape showed there like the imprint of a jewel. _The Strength of a Hundred Seal_.

Yomu gulped, his suspicion proving true. _It's really her_ , he thought in wonder and a bit of fear… and hope. _If anyone can heal me…_

"Tsunade-sama!" Shizune gave a start, turning to look at the door. "How long have you been there? I thought you said you would be gone all day. What, with that new gamb"—she hesitated, glancing back at Yomu—"entertainment house opening up by Taren Road."

Tsunade huffed, her arms crossing beneath her breasts. "Apparently, they knew me by reputation and kicked me out as soon as I got there… can you believe that?"

"Yes," Shizune and Yomu echoed.

Shizune turned and looked at him strangely, but he shrugged it off. If someone with the well-known destructive capabilities of the Senju Princess walked into his establishment, he would be remiss not to consider throwing them off as well.

"How old are you, boy?" Tsunade asked suddenly.

Yomu didn't respond, watching her carefully for a moment.

This was a _very_ dangerous shinobi, a person of the highest profile in Root's specially made bingo books. From what he knew, the organization had never had any dealings with her. And yet, she was marked with the rare "if encounter, do not engage" warning.

He was reluctant to freely give her any information about himself.

 _I already talked my mouth off to Shizune_ , he berated himself. _And I need her help… Root be damned_.

"I'm ten years old," Yomu said. Then he tilted his head. "At least, I think so."

He had stopped celebrating his birthday for the first few years at Root—as they sort of blended in together. He only started up again at Kai's insistence.

Tsunade cringed. "And your brother?"

"He's eight."

The air became heavy suddenly, and Tsunade moved, too fast to follow. Fast enough that Yomu only saw the results.

She had punched the wall—just a jab—and had shattered the bricks beside the entrance of the room. The doorframe was cracked, wood shattered at one side, and the door hung by its hinges, slanting at an angle into the corridor.

Yomu gulped.

 _Yes_ , he would throw her off his establishment indeed. And he most definitely would _not_ engage.

"That old fox," Tsunade muttered, lips curled in distaste. "Do you have any idea what you got us into, Shizune? Or who his _boss_ is? And the lengths he would go to let… whatever this is… never see the light of day?"

Shizune seemed to shrink at the older woman's tone. "Should I?"

Tsunade sighed, shaking her head. "I suppose you were too young to know about it when we left," she said.

Yomu sat quietly, not wanting to bring the attention—or the wrath—of the Sannin onto himself. _No!_ He couldn't let that opportunity go. He needed her help and damn it he would get it. He just needed the right approach.

Yomu straightened, face a mask of seriousness. "You're the Senju Princess, Tsunade, yes?"

She glowered at him. "What's it to you, brat?"

"I'm in need of your help," he said simply.

Tsunade raised an eyebrow. "And why should I give it?"

Determined to enlist the Legendary shinobi's aid, Yomu heaved himself off the bed in one swift move, disregarding his many aches and the throbbing pain on his side, hoping to paint a picture of solemnity and steadfastness as he stood at attention and pleaded for her help.

All his heart's resolve, however, couldn't make up for his body's shortcomings. His vision swam at the hasty action, knees buckling under his weight at first contact with the ground, and he fell, an unassuming human heap on the—thankfully—clean wooden floorboards.

He cringed, not knowing if for the pain or the embarrassment he felt. That wasn't exactly the image of unwavering steadiness he planned on awing the Senju Princess into aiding his cause.

Shizune was at his side the next moment, ready to help him up, but he raised a hand stopping her. She took a step back.

Groaning, he got onto both knees, weak arms trembling at the effort. He had meant to improvise a fancy speech, speaking of his noble cause to save his brother, but he settled for the next best thing.

Yomu bowed, forehead touching lacquered wood. "I beg of you, please, heal me so I can save my brother."

"See!" Tsunade pointed at him. "This is why we don't just take charity cases. I don't want to deal with this. I thought that Kumo shinobi filled my yearly philanthropy quota."

"You're forced into helping that Kumo shinobi," Shizune pointed out. "The Raikage had to actually beat you in an arm-wrestling contest."

"He didn't beat me," Tsunade noted. "Not fairly, at least."

"He still won."

"Oh please! I would've won if it had just been about strength."

Yomu kept his head low, not really sure of what to make of the exchange. Shizune had seemed very deferential to the Sannin when she first came in, but it seemed as if the more they talked the more they bickered with each other.

 _Like an old married couple,_ he thought. _As Kai always says._

He said something like that about them both too.

They argued for a few more minutes, bringing up older and older stories and complaints to one-up the other each time one of them made a compelling argument. He felt thoroughly lost throughout it all. Not even him and Kai had that many stories together, and he felt like they had been living and doing everything together since forever.

At one point, Shizune trudged across the room on angry steps, pulling Tsunade out the door with her. Hushed talk continued for a few moments outside with Shizune raising her voice as if scolding a child once or twice.

He still didn't move.

"Alright, fine!" he heard Tsunade say from the corridor. "I'll give him a chance."

Yomu lifted his head to face the door just as she walked back into the room. "Brat, how much do you value your brother?"

Yomu didn't answer for a long moment. "I only have two things in my life," he finally said. "My brother, and a promise between us. Without them, I'm nothing—just another one of them. One of _his_."

Tsunade gave a start, an odd, considering look on her face as she stood silently. Her eyes were on him, but she seemed to stare at something that wasn't there.

"All right," she conceded. "You got it, brat."

Yomu didn't remember ever being so relieved. "Thank you," he said. "Truly. I owe you my life."

"I don't need any of that," Tsunade said. "Now get up—that's just embarrassing. I hope you don't show yourself like that to every beautiful woman you meet."

Yomu flushed, finally noticing he was stark naked. He pulled the bedsheets from the bed and quickly wrapped himself with them, ignoring the chuckles from both women.

Shizune moved to help him up, putting an arm under his shoulder for support. He didn't stop her this time. He didn't know if he could've done it by himself.

As he got up and righted himself back in bed, trying to find a seemingly inexistent comfortable position, Tsunade was moving around the room, grabbing medical tools and questioning Shizune on his condition.

It didn't take long until she was at his bedside, bright green light radiating from her hands. The brightest he had ever seen.

Suddenly, Tsunade hesitated for a second, the healing glow of the jutsu flickering out. "On second thought," she said. "Do you have any money?"

"Tsunade-sama!" Shizune yelled.

"Just checking…"

xXx

(3rd Person Kai POV)

The man laughed.

The pain of the cut didn't go away as Kai expected. It wasn't the cut that hurt either, he realized. The pain was seeping through the shallow wound, boiling the area of his chest around it. It was different than anything he had ever felt. Not just the pain—everything felt sharper, more alive.

"Oh yes," the man said cheerily. "It's brilliant, isn't it? We tried adopting the apitoxin for shinobi use—the possibilities for enhancing the senses being that impressive, but the pain was just too much for the test subjects."

Tears prickled in his eyes and he tried shaking them away. That one cut hurt more than any not-so-mock torture techniques he suffered in Root.

"Let's try this again." The man wet his lips. "I will give you one chance to cooperate. Don't, and I'll have my fun for one hour—answers spewing out of you or not. Now, who do you work for? Who leads your organization?"

Kai chuckled, and the man scowled at his levity. He was laughing at himself, really, not at the man.

He was in an unenviable position. The seal prevented him from revealing any useful information to his questioner, but at the same time, if he divulged that to the man to prevent further torture, he would certainly be dispatched without preamble. He couldn't outlive his usefulness.

Kai didn't answer the inquiry.

The man growled, face reddening at Kai's perceived mocking of him. He lifted a meaty hand as if to strike him, but the pain of the blow never came. The man's face seemed to shift from anger to joy in the span of a second, and he chuckled, shaking his head.

"I did warn you," the man said. He brought up the same hand that would've hit Kai a moment ago and patted him on the cheek good-naturedly, as a father would a son. "I can't say I won't enjoy this."

He flinched away from the man's touch, shivering at his tone. Kai didn't doubt for a second that this was exactly what he wanted. The man was relishing his refusal to speak, confusing incapacity for perseverance. He wanted to break him, watch him crumble under his tyrannical ministrations, to the point where Kai would be begging to spew every secret he ever held.

The man didn't waste another second. He brought up the long scalpel and pressed it against Kai's chest, opposite the first cut. The blade felt cold against his skin, and droplets of the toxin already gathered at the point of contact as if biding their time to invade his body.

Just like before, the man cut shallowly, avoiding any major vessels. He didn't want to bleed him, that much was clear. There was no fun to be found on a dead body.

For a hopeful instant, feeling only the normal throb of an open wound, Kai thought the toxin's pain wouldn't come—but it did. Not a moment later, as powerfully as it had earlier, that horrible, scorching pain assaulted him.

However, this time, as Kai screamed and writhed, the man didn't stop to ask questions. No sooner had the agony of the toxin eased, he was cut again. Then again, and again. Relentlessly.

xXx

Kai sagged against his restraints, exhausted but relieved.

It was late at night now, and an after-hours silence seemed to blanket the mansion complex outside. The place had grown progressively quieter since a couple of hours after dusk, though the occasional patrol could still be heard coming and going by the window to his right. His loud, labored breathing and the grating of his manacles against their connecting chains whenever he twitched uncomfortably were confined to the room. The one-way privacy seal, active in Eike's room, was the only reason his screams and pleas weren't heard by anyone outside. He was sure that even the Daimyo would've been able to hear them all the way from his palace if the seal wasn't there.

The man had just left not two minutes ago.

"As fun as today was," the man had said suddenly, walking out from behind him and dropping the scalpel—now on it's third apitoxin refill tube—on top of the table with the other torture instruments. "I'm afraid I'm in need of some sleep. We do have an early morning appointment after all." With that, he had turned around and sauntered out of the room, leaving a bleeding, mentally drained Kai behind.

None of his wounds were necessarily severe or in urgent need for care—they were simply numerous. The man had followed up on his promise and had gone above and beyond it as well. Not for the next hour had he cut Kai without pausing for questioning, but for the rest of the day and well into the night.

His body looked as if it had been savaged by a feral cat, with small cuts and lacerations spanning all the way across his chest and back and down to his abdomen. Narrow trails of blood trickled from his torso down to his legs like thin strokes by a master painter, puddling beneath his feet as a testament to what he went through.

He had lost consciousness several times during the torture session—sometimes on purpose to escape the agony—but the man always made sure to wake him up, waiting until he regained full awareness of the situation before continuing to pick him apart.

Suddenly, heavy footsteps echoed their approach. Kai looked up at the door just as a man walked in. The newcomer wore the red uniform of a regular Iwa shinobi. He had a powerful build—something he had almost come to expect from almost every Iwa-nin—with arms as thick as Kai's both legs together that seemed constrained by his clothes, and wore his brown hair cropped short. He looked the definition of a soldier.

The man hesitated a few steps after the doorway, scrutinizing him. Then he sighed, rubbing the back of his neck as he resumed his pace. "They didn't tell me it was just a kid."

Kai frowned, eyes following the man as he stepped further into the room. The fellow looked nothing like a torturer. The way he spoke and walked, his body language and his small mannerisms… he was clearly uncomfortable just by being there. And it didn't seem like an act either.

The man had gone straight to the table with the torture tools. He was mumbling to himself now, awkwardly handling the various instruments with no small amount of distaste.

He could use that.

"Who are you?" Kai asked.

The bulky man paused what he was doing. He seemed hesitant to even speak to him. "My name is Shinshi, if knowing that makes you feel any better," he said. Then, under his breath, he muttered, "because it certainly doesn't make me."

"I'm… Kai", he introduced himself back. "Are you here to watch over me?"

"No, kid. That's not why I'm here."

"Just to make sure I don't escape or anything, then?" Kai asked, hopeful.

Shinshi shook his head gloomily and focused back on the table. His hands soon found what he was looking for—what Kai feared but expected. The scalpel.

"No, please…" he said. "Please, you don't have to do this. The room is sealed—no one will know if you have done it or not. If a tree falls in a forest with no ears to hear it, does it really make a sound?" Kai laughed awkwardly. "Right?"

Shinshi didn't answer, he simply picked up the scalpel and came to stand in front of him. He eyed the puddle of blood warily but stepped up onto it anyways, now in arms reach of him.

 _Not again. No. No. Please, not this again._

Kai cowered, struggling against the chains, but they didn't budge. "Please…" he cried once more.

Shinshi didn't move, holding the scalpel tightly in one hand, his head down. He took a deep breath and looked up, meeting Kai's gaze for the first time since he came into the room. "I take no pleasure or pride in doing this," he said. "But, I'm a loyal shinobi of Iwagakure. I'll follow my orders."

"Even ones like this?"

Shinshi was silent for a long moment before finally—and simply—answering, "Yes."

Kai slumped in place, gritting his teeth with the anger that came with the resignation. The anger that flooded a person when they want to do something about it, but doesn't know what or how. He simply took it, then, screaming as he had before when Shinshi first cut him across the ribs.

xXx

The two Iwa shinobi sat by the door of the room on small, upturned wooden crates as benches, eating as they talked. Only once—when they first arrived—had they even looked at Kai, lips curling and noses twitching at the strong odor that surely emanated from his end of the room. They had stopped midway from the open space in the center of the suite and had taken their improvised benches to sit closer to the door. It was a pleasant day outside, and the spring breeze coming from the ornate garden outside must do wonders to cover the stench of piss, blood, and sweat, all mixed together.

Shinshi was kind enough to give him some water the night before, claiming that the man didn't specifically prohibit him from doing that. It had been simply out of pity, a few hours into their nightly session. Kai had been barely responsive at that point, sequestered in the depths of his mind trying to separate mind from body. It hadn't worked much the day before, but Shinshi was hardly as zealous as the man had been in his torture, with long pauses following each of his slashes.

He had been snapped out of his mind with the wonderful and invigorating feeling of water being poured into his mouth, and a weirdly abashed Shinshi grumbling under his breath about still following the rules. He felt as if he truly loved the man at that point.

Stockholm Syndrome really was a powerful thing.

The water had come at a price, though not much of it to himself. Unsurprisingly, pissing yourself loses the whole embarrassing element to it when you've been screaming for your inexistent mother and hanging by your wrists, stewing in your own blood for a day or two while being repeatedly tortured.

At least, as a bonus, he couldn't smell a thing. His nose was broken, still bent at an odd angle from the elbow he took in the face when he first woke up. He had thought about shitting himself on purpose, just to spite his torturers, but he hadn't eaten anything in two days. He doubted there would be anything there at all, and he wasn't keen on letting anyone check.

Not an hour after Shinshi had left—just short of six in the morning—the man had returned. He had seemed pleased with Shinshi's handiwork, chuckling at the dark patch in Kai's pants. He must've thought he had urinated out of pain or fear.

The man had worked eagerly on Kai up until his lunch break, this time asking all the questions he hadn't the night before. His unresponsiveness had infuriated the man more than his perceived perseverance of the first torture session.

At one point, after hours of constant cutting and slashing without receiving any visible response, the man had exploded. He had thrown the scalpel aside and relentlessly beaten Kai with his bare hands in his frustration.

It had been a wonderful relief, truly. The beating was nothing compared to the apitoxin's damage.

Knowing that the man would be gone for at least some time, Kai rolled his shoulders awkwardly—almost painfully—until they finally popped out of their sockets and his body slid down following his arms. With the gained inches, his feet touched the ground in what felt like months. The relief of not being hung by the ceiling was instantaneous, even if he had to stand on his tip-toes.

He turned to the two shinobi, making sure they were still engaged in conversation. The last thing Kai wanted now was to gain their attention.

He couldn't help but stare longingly at their food. It was a simple affair—chicken legs with potatoes and turnips served on clay plates. A loaf of dark bread between the two. Simple, yet it seemed like a banquet to him.

"Oh," one of the soldiers—the bulkier of the two—said, nudging the other on the side suggestively. "That reminds me…did you finally stick it to Suiren? And don't lie to me, Takashino. I've seen the way you've been eyeing each other."

"I didn't stick her anywhere," Takashino said. "We're in love, alright. Love"

The bulky man shook his head. "By the Tsuchikage's health… you sound just like an academy girl." He stuffed his mouth with the last bit of turnip in his plate and took a swinging bite of his chicken leg, uncaring of the grease running down his thick black beard. "Fine, then," he said, still chewing. "Did you _make love_ to her or not? You must've had enough chances to sneak a quick one on your way north. What—with a different feckin' tree every goddamn step you take."

"Well… no," Takashino said, to which his friend threw his arms up. "It's not my fault, Kuma. There was not time for it. We had to leave suddenly, so we didn't plan for anything, and our orders were to get the family to the border as soon as possible—no long stops or unnecessary delays."

Kai frowned. _Family…_ he wondered. _What family?_

The man—Kuma—snorted. "That pretentious little fellow had a right stick up his ass, walking around looking down on everyone, dressed like a peacock on mating season. You're telling me that he and his family went all the way to our border without stopping at any town?"

"Yes," Takashino answered. "And his daughter—cute little thing—took a liking to Suiren. Whenever we stopped, she would pester her for hours on end. So much so, that when we hit the checkpoint and another squad took the escort over, Suiren went with them. I guess she liked the little lady too. Said she always wanted to have a daughter, or something like that."

"Ha!" Kuma laughed. "She traded you for a little girl then?"

"Oh, shut it!"

Kai blocked out the rest of the conversation as Kuma started telling about his most recent conquest. That man could make Jiraya's editor blush.

He started stretching as much as he could in the constraint of his bonds, stiff muscles and aching bones groaning in disuse. He had done enough thinking in his hours of torture, and eventually had given up figuring things out, planning for an escape, or even worrying for Yomu—the man would've made sure to present him the news if they had found him, dead or alive, and if he was to die in this wretched place, he might as well die believing his brother was alive.

Yet, something seemed to fall into place in his mind, and he couldn't shake the feeling he had just gained another piece of the puzzle, which was frustrating, since he didn't even know he was solving one.

The two men talked and bantered back and forth until they finished their meals— Kuma's last bite accentuated by a roaring burp—kicking the crates back to their places and stood to lounge by the door, alternating between playing rock paper scissors and another game Kai didn't recognize but made sure to learn.

Old habits die hard, and cultural blending was a cornerstone of Root's infiltration teachings.

When Takashino and Kuma suddenly stood at attention, Kai knew the man was back. With a silent grunt, he popped his shoulders back into their sockets and once more hung by the chains, wincing as the metal dug into the infected wounds where it met his wrist.

The two guards left after a quick salute, leaving him and the man alone.

The man walked up to him, and Kai thought that if he could, he would have smelt the alcohol on his breath when he spoke. "Are you ready to talk now?"

He didn't answer.

The man gave a somewhat forced smile. "Good," he bit the words out.

xXx

Kai remembered a story from his old world—a tv series, actually—where a soldier returned to America as a hero after seven odd years of imprisonment by Al-Qaeda but was suspected to have connections with plans for terrorist attacks against the United States by a CIA agent.

Kai had never finished the show, nor gotten to the part where it was revealed if the soldier had really turned against his country or not, but he found himself wondering about the answer now. Not out of curiosity for the story—not really— but perhaps the soldier had only pretended to renounce his allegiance to be released and didn't actually plan on following up with the terrorist attacks on his own people.

He was seriously considering trying that out.

It was just a fancy, of course. Even he if tried, Kai doubted he could persuade the big fellow that had been torturing him for the past day. The man might be a temperamental brute, but he was no fool. _Not that much of a fool, at least._

Although, there would be a partial truth in his change of sides. It wouldn't take much to get him to apostatize Root after all. Granted, he might turn coats on Root easily enough, but not on Konoha, and certainly not for Iwa of all nations.

Kai winced soundly, a sharper than usual pain-cut bringing him back to reality—as some were wont to do every once in while. They were either deeper or on a more sensitive part of his body.

He looked down, eyes shifting as his head remained unmoving. This one had been right below the collarbone. Delicate place, that was.

"I'll ask again," he heard. "And I know it's not the Hokage. Now, who leads Root? Is it one of the Elders? Is it Jiraiya of the Sannin, or maybe Hatake Kakashi?" The man brought his hand up to Kai's face and grabbed him roughly by the chin, shaking him and forcing him to look up. "Answer me, you little piece of rotten afterbirth. You snot-nosed, son of a motherless goat twerp. Answer me, damn it!"

Kai's throat had been hurting for half a day now, burning and throbbing. It was dry as a desert as well—he was beyond parched. It had been almost a full day since Shinshi had poured him water, and bleeding from hundreds of wounds was a thirsty business.

But he snorted a full-blown snort, deep from his ardent throat. _Little piece of rotten afterbirth,_ he repeated the words in his head. _I have to use that one someday._

He chuckled under the man's coarse hands. It was one more reason to live, if nothing.

Fury burned in the man's eyes as they widened and narrowed in a single, fluid movement. He seemed ready to shove that scalpel into Kai's heart, the information on Root be damned. Suddenly, a throat cleared from across the room, stopping the man from doing whatever he planned to. He turned, just as surprised that he didn't hear anyone entering as Kai was.

It was a brawny man that he saw from above his torturer's shoulder, standing at the door with a frown marring his face. Kai supposed that not even Iwa shinobi were used to child torture.

The man seemed…familiar, somehow. With his broad face and even broader nose, he looked almost like Shinshi. Yet, there was a distinct difference between how the two carried themselves. Shinshi was a soldier—a veteran, even. The man in front of him, however…. Oh, he was a soldier, and a veteran too, but though he might not be wearing any noticeable symbols of rank in his red garb, his presence was that of a leader.

Kai narrowed his eyes as his torturer stepped aside to meet the newcomer, getting a better view of the man. _It's Kitsuchi_ , he finally realized, one of the commanders for the Allied Shinobi Forces during the Fourth Great Shinobi War and Kurotsuchi's father. He looked younger, of course, with fewer lines streaking his face and no beard, but the perpetually angry face and the bulbous nose were unmistakable.

It might not have been the rescue party Kai hoped, but any interruption was something to be celebrated.

"I apologize for not addressing you before," Kitsuchi said. "I've been very busy these last few days." He walked further into the room, stopping by the table with the torture instruments. "I take it this your special assignment?"

The man crossed his arms in front of his chest. "It is."

"And how does it involve torturing a child?" Kitsuchi asked.

The man sneered, and Kai didn't know if it was toward Kitsuchi or him. "This _child_ is from _that_ Konoha organization."

Kitsuchi turned to Kai sharply, surprise evident on his face. It was gone as fast as it came. "I see," he said, nodding. "What has he revealed so far?"

"The Reds take their orders directly from the Tsuchikage's office," the man said. "I do not fall under your umbrella of command and have no reason to answer your questions."

Kitsuchi raised an eyebrow. "Is that so?"

"You know it as well as I."

Kitsuchi's lip curled and his beefy right hand seemed to inch towards his kunai pouch before he scoffed and turned to the table behind him. He handled the tools on the table idly for a little while, almost unworried, but his open back was a clear invitation to the man. _'Make the first move,'_ it seemed to whisper. _'Attack me and see what happens.'_

The tension was palpable in the room, dense as syrup and sharp as a blade all at once. He could see a bead of sweat rolling down the side of the man's face as his arms seemed to tighten across his chest.

In all honesty, Kai was absolutely clueless as to why. _Are there different factions inside Iwa?_ He wondered. There had not been any mention of it on the show from what he could remember. In fact, The Village Hidden in the Stones had a pretty stunted development in the series, with almost no in-depth stories happening within in or about it.

"Any information regarding _that_ organization may be pivotal in this operation," Kitsuchi finally said, "and I won't have it be the cause for an unfortunate surprise." He turned back to face the man then, fixing him with a defiant glare. "Do not try me on this, _Red_." He spat out the last word as if it burned his tongue just by saying it.

"He's got nothing," Kai croaked out before the man could say anything. "That's why he doesn't want to say anything."

Kitsuchi turned, surprised that he said anything. He looked at him up and down with interest. "How old are you, boy?"

"Eight," Kai said, and Kitsuchi nodded.

"I was told you've had him for almost two days now," Kitsuchi said. "You're telling me that during the course of two days you couldn't get anything out of an eight-year-old?"

The man seemed to shake as he stood, face red with anger, and Kai swore he saw blood seeping from the man's closed fists. But he kept his silence, only shrugging in response to Kitsuchi's bait.

Kitsuchi smiled then, twirling a small, silver plier he had gotten from the table in his hands. "Well," he started, "either the tree huggers are getting tougher, or the Reds aren't really as competent and scary as they make out to be…"

Seemingly on instinct, the man took a step forward, arms uncrossing, coming to rest at his sides, readied. "You dare…" He took one more step but stopped when he looked at his counterpart.

Kitsuchi didn't flinch. He held a calm face, but Kai could see his muscles tightening and his weight slowly shifting to the ball of his feet. He looked like a tiger ready to pounce.

They stared at each other for a long moment, neither speaking nor moving. The sounds of daily activity outside were the only break in the fragile silence of the room.

Eventually, the man lowered his eyes, turning from Kitsuchi and spitting at the floor.

Kitsuchi smiled pleasantly—an expression that looked foreign on his square face—and the killing intent that flooded the room just a second before disappearing.

"It doesn't matter. I came here because, like it or not, you're a unit leader, and we'll be having one last council meeting before the start of the operation." Kitsuchi spoke as if nothing of what had occurred just a minute ago ever happened. "You can bring two of your men."

"I see," the man said, arms back across his chest. "I heard the last shipment with men arrived last night. I assume it will commence soon after the meeting, then, at nightfall. It's about time, is what it is."

Kai frowned, and he saw Kitsuchi glancing at him from the corner of his eyes, shaking his head. "Just…" he trailed off, hand rubbing the side of his head in annoyance. "Just come to the meeting, you know the room." He threw the plier at the table and turned to leave. Just as he was about to walk out, he stopped by the door. "And finish off the kid if you're not going to get anything useful out of him. Waste your time on something else that's not a child, will you?"

The man scoffed after Kitsuchi left, throwing a kunai that struck the door in his anger. "Children…" the man said. "Don't talk to me about fucking children. How many more will be dying before this is over? Huh? You false moralist."

The man turned to Kai then, glaring at him until he felt a shiver run through his body. If Kai thought the man wanted him dead before, now he was sure.

"Sir!" A sudden voice sounded from outside, succeeded by a shinobi wearing the same red armband the man wore entering the room, breathing heavily.

"What now!?" The man roared, turning abruptly.

The shinobi saluted him with a fist to the chest. "An urgent message arrived from one of our agents. It's marked with a black ribbon…"

The man gave a start. "A black ribbon…" He paused for a moment before looking back to Kai, staring at him while biting his lip.

Finally, he clicked his tongue. "I'll deal with you in a bit." He turned to the shinobi and made for the door. "Let's go."

When the man crossed the threshold, Kai let out a breath he didn't know he had been holding, sweat dripping down his bloodied back, stinging on every cut.

He looked at the sun through the cracks in the blind, two-thirds of the way from dusk, Kai knew he should be using the opportunity to stretch his sore muscles once again. If said council meeting was a prelude to them leaving at sunset, the man would have to go straight there before returning. But he had his mind somewhere else now.

He had tried to close himself out from everything as much as possible, hiding inside his own subconscious to avoid the worst of the torture. He couldn't. Not anymore. The pieces of the previously unknown puzzle of what was happening in the city of Hōno and how their mission tied up to it finally fell into place.

For the first time in two days, Kai felt the rush of adrenaline into his body and the sense of purpose return to his crushed spirit. He pushed and pulled against the manacles, trashing like a fish thrown out of the water, the cuts around his torso worsening and reopening, but he could barely notice them.

He needed to escape. It wasn't about his survival anymore or even that of his brother. It was… it was everyone.

Taking a deep breath, Kai yanked his arms back with all his might. The chains rattled and its links clinked against each other, but nothing happened. He trashed for a few minutes longer, trying everything that he could. It was for naught. He slumped again, defeated.

The fire that briefly flickered in him died, snuffed out by the tears that came freely now, joining the puddle beneath.

"I have to warn them," Kai said between sobs, vision growing hazy, head getting lighter. "I have to—"

* * *

 _ **A/N:**_ **Let me know what you think.**


End file.
